Family Nurtured Comcast to Become Cable Giant

Patience paid off for the Roberts family of Philadelphia, which won its bid Wednesday to buy AT&T; Broadband and secured its place as America’s leading cable clan.

But then again, the Robertses are used to getting what they want.

Well-known in Philadelphia, where they built their cable franchise from scratch, the Roberts family soon will be catapulted onto the national stage as the biggest shareholder in the nation’s biggest cable operator.

“They are the great American success story,” said Edward C. Rendell, Philadelphia’s former mayor, in an interview last summer after the family launched its unsolicited bid for AT&T.;

Patriarch Ralph Roberts, 81, got his start as an entrepreneur, running a small belt and suspender company.

When business soured in 1963, he decided to diversify by buying a Mississippi cable franchise with 1,200 customers.

Last year, that little side investment, now known as Comcast, reported $8.2 billion in revenue and $2 billion in profit. And the Roberts family, which controls 86% of Comcast’s voting shares, is worth nearly $1 billion.

It was a family affair from the beginning, particularly for son Brian Roberts, who got his start climbing utility poles and selling cable service.

Though the family’s four other children never showed much interest in the business, everyone knew Brian would one day take the reins. And if they didn’t know, Brian often told them.

By 30, he was president and launched an aggressive expansion that quadrupled the company’s subscribers.

He won control of the QVC shopping network and persuaded movie mogul Barry Diller to run it. In 1996, Comcast acquired the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team and the Flyers, the city’s professional hockey team.

A year later, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates was so taken with Brian Roberts during a dinner meeting that he invested $1billion in Comcast.

The deals helped Brian emerge from his father’s shadow and become one of the industry’s most respected leaders.

Today, father and son maintain a close relationship, friends and colleagues say. Ralph Roberts no longer handles day-to-day affairs but still comes regularly to work, where he and Brian have adjoining offices.

Ralph’s wife of 58 years, Suzanne, is active in community theater and is featured in a daily advice show that airs in Comcast’s cable markets.

In Philadelphia, the family is respected and feared.

“They are the closest thing we have to corporate kings,” said one City Hall staffer.

“They are very rich, very powerful and very shrewd,” said Lance Haver, a local activist and president of the board of Consumer Education and Protective Assn., in a recent interview. “They can also be very heavy-handed.”

Haver and others have accused the family of using its influence to pressure city officials into driving away a potential cable competitor that was attempting to break into its home turf.

The company denied that it has pulled any strings.

The family also has been active in politics. Comcast gave $1 million to help bring the 2000 Republican National Convention to Philadelphia, and Brian Roberts co-chaired the organizing committee.