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Other 2007 Acquisitions
In August 2007, we acquired the cable system of Patriot Media
serving approximately 81,000 video subscribers in central New
Jersey. In June 2007, we acquired Rainbow Media Holdings’ 60%
interest in Bay Area SportsNet and its 50% interest in Sports
Channel New England, expanding our regional sports networks.
The completion of this transaction resulted in our 100% ownership
in Sports Channel New England and 60% ownership in Bay Area
SportsNet. The results of operations of Patriot Media, Bay Area
SportsNet and Sports Channel New England have been included
in our consolidated financial statements since their acquisition
dates and are reported in our Cable segment. In April 2007, we
acquired Fandango, an online entertainment site and movie-ticket
service. The results of operations of Fandango have been included
in our consolidated financial statements since the acquisition date
and are reported in Corporate and Other. None of these acquis-
itions were material to our consolidated financial statements for the
year ended December 31, 2007.
Other 2006 Acquisitions
E! Entertainment Television
In November 2006, we acquired the 39.5% of E! Entertainment
Television (which operates the E! and Style programming networks)
that we did not already own for approximately $1.2 billion. We have
historically consolidated the results of operations of E! Entertainment
Television. We allocated the purchase price to property and equip-
ment, intangibles and goodwill.
Susquehanna
In April 2006, we acquired the cable systems of Susquehanna
Cable Co. and its subsidiaries (“Susquehanna”) for a total pur-
chase price of approximately $775 million. These cable systems
are located primarily in Pennsylvania, New York, Maine and Mis-
sissippi. Before the acquisition, we held an approximate 30%
equity ownership interest in Susquehanna that we accounted for
as an equity method investment. On May 1, 2006, Susquehanna
Cable Co. redeemed the approximate 70% equity ownership in-
terest in Susquehanna held by Susquehanna Media Co., which
resulted in Susquehanna becoming 100% owned by us. The re-
sults of operations of these cable systems have been included in
our consolidated financial statements since the acquisition date
and are reported in our Cable segment. We allocated the purchase
price to property and equipment, franchise-related customer rela-
tionship intangibles, nonamortizing cable franchise rights and
goodwill. The acquisition of these cable systems was not material
to our consolidated financial statements for 2006.
2005 Acquisitions
Motorola
In March 2005, we entered into two joint ventures with Motorola
under which we are developing and licensing next-generation pro-
gramming access security (known as conditional access) tech-
nology for cable systems and related products. In addition to
funding approximately 50% of the annual cost requirements, we
paid $20 million to Motorola and have committed to pay up to $80
million to Motorola based on the achievement of certain mile-
stones. Motorola contributed licenses to conditional access and
related technology to the ventures. These two ventures are both
considered VIEs, and we have consolidated both of these ven-
tures as we are considered the primary beneficiary. Accordingly,
we recorded approximately $190 million in intangible assets, of
which we recorded a charge of approximately $20 million related
to in-process research and development in 2005 that has been in-
cluded in amortization expense.
Note 6: Investments
The components of our investments are presented in the table
below:
December 31 (in millions) 2007 2006
Fair value method
Cablevision Systems Corporation $ 126 $ 146
Discovery Holding Company 251 161
Embarq Corporation 569
Liberty Capital 582 490
Liberty Global 582 439
Liberty Interactive 477 539
Sprint Nextel 26 493
Time Warner Inc. —1,052
Vodafone —61
Tax exempt municipal securities 621 —
Other 31 63
2,701 3,513
Equity method
Insight Midwest 1,877 560
SpectrumCo, LLC 1,352 1,291
Texas and Kansas City Cable Partners —2,968
Other 453 575
3,682 5,394
Cost method, primarily AirTouch 1,678 1,675
Total investments 8,061 10,582
Less current investments 98 1,735
Noncurrent investments $ 7,963 $ 8,847
Comcast 2007 Annual Report on Form 10-K 52