{"id":9880,"date":"2026-06-30T13:27:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T13:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=9880"},"modified":"2026-06-30T13:27:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T13:27:23","slug":"wall-street-dealmaker-roger-altman-delivers-candid-comcast-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=9880","title":{"rendered":"Wall Street dealmaker Roger Altman delivers candid Comcast verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p>I have watched plenty of Wall Street veterans hedge their commentary on big corporate breakups.  We have had too many qualifiers, too much &#8220;time will tell.&#8221; This time, I like that Roger Altman did not do that.<\/p>\n<p>The Evercore founder, senior chairman, and American investment banker who has advised on some of the largest deals in Wall Street history, joined CNBC&#8217;s &#8220;Squawk Box&#8221; Monday morning, June 29, hours after Comcast (CMCSA) announced it would split into two independent public companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His verdict was immediate and unhedged. &#8220;It does,&#8221; Altman said when asked if the split made sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s the right move.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>CMCSA closed up 4.53% to $24.22 on June 29 after the news. The stock is still down 11.51% year-to-date and 23.63% over the past year, according to Yahoo Finance. Yes, that\u2019s a brutal stretch that, in Altman&#8217;s framing, is partly why this breakup is finally happening now rather than sooner.<\/p>\n<p>Also Read: Comcast Corporation Latest News and Stories<\/p>\n<h2>Here is what Comcast actually announced<\/h2>\n<p>Comcast confirmed Monday, June 29, that it will separate into two independent publicly traded companies through a tax-free spin-off of NBCUniversal and Sky, according to the Comcast announcement. <\/p>\n<p>Shareholders will receive shares in both the standalone Comcast and the new NBCUniversal entity once the separation is complete, expected in approximately one year.<\/p>\n<p>The resulting Comcast will be a pure-play connectivity and technology company, anchored by its broadband and wireless platforms, reaching more than 65 million homes and businesses, alongside its business services division.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>More Telecommunications:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>SpaceX just put every US carrier on notice<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Qualcomm\u2019s massive AI expansion already has 2 Mag 7 giants on board<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Cramer turns bullish after surprise comeback in legacy tech stock<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>NBCUniversal \u2014 combined with Sky, Comcast&#8217;s European media business \u2014 becomes a standalone global media and entertainment company built around theme parks, the Universal film and television studios, NBC, Telemundo, Peacock, and Bravo.<\/p>\n<p>Leadership changes accompany the split. Mike Cavanagh will run NBCUniversal as CEO. Former Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis returns as Comcast&#8217;s CEO, joining initially as a strategic advisor. <\/p>\n<p>Brian Roberts remains actively involved across both companies. Comcast plans to retain up to a 19.9% stake in NBCUniversal for up to one year post-spin, intending to monetize that position in a tax-efficient manner over time.<\/p>\n<h2>Why Altman thinks the timing should have come sooner<\/h2>\n<p>Actually, what stood out most to me in Altman&#8217;s commentary was not just his endorsement. It was his candor about the delay.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Comcast&#8217;s share price obviously in recent months has done very poorly,&#8221; Altman said on CNBC&#8217;s Squawk Box.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I commend Brian and Mike and the others for taking it, and I think it gives them now a lot of optionality once they complete the split on both sides of the company in terms of additional combinations and other things. So it&#8217;s the right move. You could debate the timing of it. Maybe they should have done it a year or two ago, but it&#8217;s the right move.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>Related: Comcast launches new service to win back internet customers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My read of that comment is that Altman is pointing to a familiar pattern in conglomerate breakups: the stock has to get cheap enough, and the pressure has to build long enough, before management acts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yahoo Finance CMCSA&#8217;s three-year return of negative 30.89% and five-year return of negative 46.70%, against an S&amp;P 500 that gained 69.24% and 73.36% over those same periods, is exactly the kind of underperformance that forces a board&#8217;s hand.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;optionality&#8221; language Altman used is significant to an investment banker. A standalone connectivity company and a standalone media company each become cleaner acquisition targets, partnership candidates, or consolidators in their own right \u2014 deal flexibility that gets buried inside a conglomerate structure.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thestreet.com\/.image\/NDA6MDAwMDAwMDAzMDk2OTM0\/national-cable-and-telecommunications-association-cable-show.jpg?profile=rss\" height=\"675\" width=\"1200\"><figcaption>Comcast Domestic wireless customer line net additions reached 435,000, the best quarterly result in company history.<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>The underlying businesses that Altman believes justify the split<\/h2>\n<p>Comcast&#8217;s Q1 fiscal 2026 results, reported April 23, illustrate why splitting these two businesses may unlock value that the combined structure has obscured, according to the Comcast earnings release.<\/p>\n<h3>On the Connectivity &amp; Platforms side<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Domestic wireless customer line net additions reached 435,000, the best quarterly result in company history.<\/li>\n<li>Total wireless lines increased to 9.7 million.<\/li>\n<li>Business services connectivity revenue grew 5.8% year over year to $2.6 billion.<\/li>\n<li>Business services connectivity posted an EBITDA margin of 55.9%.<\/li>\n<li>Domestic broadband customer net losses improved by 117,000 year over year.<\/li>\n<li>Total Residential Connectivity &amp; Platforms customer relationships increased by 10,000 to 47.9 million.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>On the media side:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Peacock paid subscribers grew 12% year over year to 46 million.<\/li>\n<li>Peacock revenue surged 71% year over year to more than $2 billion for the first time.<\/li>\n<li>Theme parks&#8217; EBITDA rose 33% to $551 million, driven by the May 2025 opening of Epic Universe.<\/li>\n<li>The Milan Cortina Olympics and Super Bowl LX became NBCUniversal&#8217;s most-watched events in company history.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201c2026 is an important year of execution, and we&#8217;re seeing tangible early signs our pivot is taking hold,&#8221; said Brian L. Roberts and Mike Cavanagh, co-CEOs of Comcast Corporation, in the Q1 fiscal 2026 earnings report.<\/p>\n<p>Both businesses are performing well individually. The market, evidently, has not been valuing them as such combined.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Altman&#8217;s framing, that this should have happened sooner, but is unquestionably the right move now, captures exactly what a 4.53% single-day stock pop is telling investors. Separation may finally let each business get credit for what it is actually worth.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>Related: Comcast&#8217;s NBCUniversal spinoff just transformed streaming wars<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>#Wall #Street #dealmaker #Roger #Altman #delivers #candid #Comcast #verdict<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have watched plenty of Wall Street veterans hedge their commentary on big corporate breakups. We have had too many qualifiers, too much &#8220;time will tell.&#8221; This time, I like&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246],"tags":[2445,9557,646,11761,876,11762,379,8510,1152],"class_list":["post-9880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-popular","tag-altman","tag-candid","tag-comcast","tag-dealmaker","tag-delivers","tag-roger","tag-street","tag-verdict","tag-wall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}