By William Launder And Shalini Ramachandran
Ralph Roberts, who transformed a tiny Mississippi cable company
into what eventually grew into industry giant Comcast Corp., has
died. He was 95.
Mr. Roberts died of natural causes Thursday night in
Philadelphia, Comcast said in a statement Friday. "Ralph built
Comcast into one of America's greatest companies and his vision and
spirit have been at the heart of Comcast and our culture for 50
years," the company said. "He will be truly missed."
Mr. Roberts got his start in business at an advertising agency,
eventually acquiring Pioneer Industries, then one of the country's
largest makers of men's clothing accessories. Sensing that the era
of suspenders and cuff-links was giving way to beltless polyester
pants, he sold the company and began investing in the then-nascent
cable industry.
Cable television, in those days, was still a tiny business of
community antennas and strung up wires. Mr. Roberts got wind of it
through a chance meeting with a cable-system owner who was looking
to get a struggling Southern cable distributor off his hands.
Smelling opportunity, Mr. Roberts made his first acquisition: a
Tupelo, Miss., cable operator transmitting signals for 1,200 local
residents.
The trick for industry pioneers like Mr. Roberts was convincing
viewers to pay for something they already got free. He and his team
went door-to-door to sign on subscribers and, in one town, held
daily Bingo contests to attract new customers.
The official Comcast was launched in Philadelphia in 1963. Mr.
Roberts expanded in Mississippi through acquisitions, and in 1971,
the company acquired cable systems and franchises in western
Pennsylvania--familiar territory for Mr. Roberts, who spent much of
his youth and adult years there. By that time, Mr. Roberts was
confident enough in the future of the cable industry to take the
company public. He and his top lieutenants chose the company's name
by combining the words "communications" and "broadcast" into
Comcast. Based in Philadelphia, the company went public in 1972 on
the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Other transformative acquisitions followed, including a 1986
deal to acquire a stake in Group W that put Comcast on the map and
boosted its scale to more than a million subscribers. But it was
the 2001 acquisition of AT&T Inc.'s cable systems that
catapulted Comcast into the top ranks of pay TV operators.
Playing a major role in driving much of that growth was Ralph's
son, Brian L. Roberts, the fourth of his five children, who became
president in 1990 and chief executive in 2002. In 2011, Comcast
acquired NBCUniversal, owner of cable-TV channels and the Universal
studio, making it a major diversified media conglomerate.
There were some big setbacks for the Roberts media empire along
the way. Most recently, the company's pursuit of a merger with Time
Warner Cable Inc. ran into stiff resistance in Washington. After
regulatory pushback, Comcast called off the planned deal in
April.
Beneath Mr. Roberts' old-fashioned manners and dapper dress--he
favored bow ties and fine tailoring from his days in men's
fashion--lay a shrewd and tenacious deal maker. In 1994, he and
Brian outmaneuvered QVC Chairman Barry Diller and CBS Corp.
Chairman Larry Tisch to block a planned merger of QVC and CBS.
Comcast partly owned QVC and didn't like the plan. It ended up
taking control of the home-shopping channel.
In a media industry where family businesses are often marked by
intergenerational disputes and dramas, much was made of the gentle
relationship between Ralph and Brian.
"He was a natural born entrepreneur," the younger Mr. Roberts
said, who emphasized that he remained a humble man even though he
became very successful. His father served as Comcast's chairman
emeritus until his death.
When Brian told his father after college he only wanted to work
for the family business rather than pursue a career on Wall Street,
Mr. Roberts sent him to learn the guts of the cable business in
far-reaching Comcast territories spanning from Flint, Mich., to
Pittsburgh.
In his later years, Mr. Roberts advised his son on major deals,
and imparted a conservative approach to the kinds of financial
leverage and engineering that burned many big corporations during
the financial crisis. He also helped push the initial NBCU
transaction through Washington regulators.
Before going into business, Mr. Roberts served in the Navy and
studied at the University of Pennsylvania. He cited the death of
his father when he was a teenager, a move that left his family in
financial limbo, for his hunger to succeed in business. In his
later years, Mr. Roberts began riding horses and became involved
with various philanthropic causes.
Mr. Roberts is survived by his wife of more than 70 years,
Suzanne, four children and eight grandchildren.
In a statement Friday, the Roberts family called the patriarch a
"remarkable man who touched the lives of so many people."
Write to Shalini Ramachandran at
shalini.ramachandran@wsj.com
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