Compass Lexecon Experts Assist In Obtaining Regulatory Approval for Historic Comcast and General Electric Joint Venture

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice announced approval of a joint venture through which Comcast and General Electric will combine the broadcast, cable programming, movie studio, theme park, and online content businesses of NBC Universal with the cable programming and certain online content businesses of Comcast. The joint venture, which has been valued at $30 billion, will be majority owned and managed by Comcast. Compass Lexecon was retained by Comcast--through its counsel, Michael Hammer of Willkie, Farr & Gallagher and Arthur Burke of Davis, Polk & Wardwell--to provide support for Comcast’s efforts to secure regulatory approval for the transaction. Throughout the transaction, we also worked closely with Joe Sims and other attorneys at Jones Day, Deborah Feinstein and other attorneys at Arnold & Porter, and Richard Metzger of Lawler, Metzger, Keeney & Logan, among others. Compass Lexecon experts Professor Michael Katz and Dr. Mark Israel submitted three economic reports and numerous memoranda to the FCC to demonstrate the benefits of and lack of competitive harm from the transaction, made several presentations on these topics to the DOJ, participated in an economists’ panel at the FCC, and provided economic support and advice to Comcast and outside counsel on the economic issues in the case, including the government agencies’ proposed conditions. During the course of Compass Lexecon’s involvement in this transaction, we responded to submissions by numerous economists representing parties opposing (or requesting conditions on) the transaction. The Compass Lexecon team supporting Katz and Israel included Bryan Keating, Theresa Sullivan, Nauman Ilias, Antara Dutta, Diane Lee, Jeff Raileanu, Matt Gibb, and Jeff Tucker.