Comcast Corporation has named Steven A. White as President of its West Division. Mr. White will be the senior executive responsible for Comcast's video, high speed Internet, and voice operations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Utah and Wisconsin. He will lead a team of nearly 20,000 employees and will serve more than six million customers. Mr. White will begin his role immediately, and will report directly to Dave Watson, Executive Vice President of Operations for Comcast Cable. Mr. White succeeds former West Division President Brad Dusto, who has served in a number of leadership roles in his 17 year career at Comcast, including Chief Technology Officer prior to taking this key field operations role in 2002.

Comcast Corp. and General Electric Co., negotiating over the sale of NBC Universal Inc., agreed to value the unit at about $30 billion, according to three people familiar with the matter. Vivendi, which has a 20% stake in NBC Universal, is still not part of the agreement, according to one of the people, who wished to remain anonymous because the talks are not public. Comcast is in talks to acquire a 51% stake in the venture that would include the NBC Universal entertainment assets if Vivendi agrees to sell, people familiar with the matter said in October. Vivendi has an annual option to sell its stake in NBC between November 15 and December 10. The vice president of communications, at Vivendi, Simon Gillham said in a November 3 interview that the company is in “no hurry” to exercise its option. Gary Sheffer, a GE spokesman, and John Demming, a Comcast spokesman, both refused comment. Vivendi’s Gillham did not immediately return an e-mail seeking comment outside regular business hours. Comcast would contribute $4 billion to $6 billion plus cable channels including E! Entertainment, said one of the people. GE would contribute its 80% stake in NBC Universal, one person said. The structure being discussed would allow Comcast to acquire cable programming that Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts has targeted as a priority for acquisitions. GE would withdraw from a business that some analysts have urged Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt to divest because it does not fit with the parent’s industrial, finance and health-care focus. Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy has described NBC Universal as “non-core” and has made acquisitions in other areas. GE and Comcast are looking to seal an agreement within the next two weeks, and the resulting company would have a net $9 billion in debt, one of the people said. Last week, Comcast and GE met with debt-rating companies to ensure that the debt the new venture would take on would not put the new entity below investment grade, said people familiar with the matter. Both companies want the venture to be investment grade. The deal, upon closing, may take as long as a year to pass U.S. regulatory approval, said the people. The venture would pay Vivendi over time, using cash generated from operations, one of the people said. Comcast could do the deal without putting onto jeopardy its dividend or share repurchases, said the person. Comcast has the option to buy out GE’s minority stake at 3.5 year and 7 year intervals, people with knowledge of the discussions said. The NBC Universal valuation was reported earlier on November 9 by the Wall Street Journal.

Comcast Corporation launched its high-speed wireless data service in Philadelphia today as the company continues its nationwide rollout of Comcast High-Speed 2go(TM). Comcast High-Speed 2go is a fourth-generation, or 4G, wireless high-speed data service that provides the fastest available wireless Internet in the nation via wireless data cards. Comcast will sell this wireless service bundled with one or more of its popular Internet, phone and television products, providing mobile broadband wherever and whenever customers need to be connected.