Providence loses managing director to Comcast

Michael Angelakis, a managing director at Providence Equity Partners, a Providence, Rhode Island-based private equity firm that specialises in the media and entertainment, communications and information sectors, has decided to leave the firm after seven years to join Comcast Corporation, a Philadelphia-based provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services, Comcast said in a statement. Angelakis will make the move at the end of the first quarter of 2007, the statement said.

Angelakis will replace Comcast’s two current chief financial officers, Lawrence Smith and John Alchin, who, at the end of last year, announced their plans to retire, the statement said. Smith will resign at the end of the first quarter of 2007, but Alchin will continue on with Angelakis until the end of 2007. Both Smith and Alchin will remain advisors to Comcast following their retirement, the statement said.

“Mike was a cable operator when he joined us, and we understand his desire to return to an operating role, especially at such a great company,” Jonathan Nelson, Providence’s chief executive officer, said in the statement.

Prior to joining Providence in 1999, Angelakis was the president and chief executive officer at both State Cable TV Corporation and Aurora Telecommunications.

Comcast focuses on developing and managing broadband cable systems and providing programming, the statement said, adding that its networks and investments include E! Entertainment Television, Style Network and The Golf Channel. The company has approximately 24.1 million cable customers, 11 million high-speed Internet customers and 2.1 million telephone customers.

Comcast holds a majority ownership in Comcast Spectator, a Philadelphia-based sports and entertainment firm, which includes holdings in two professional sports teams, the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League and the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association. Comcast Spectator also has holdings in two arenas located in Philadelphia.

Providence and Comcast have worked together in the past. Providence joined private equity firms Texas Pacific Group and DLJ Merchant Banking, as well as Sony Corporation of America, to buy production and distribution company Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer (MGM), for approximately $3 billion (€2.3 billion) in September of 2004. As part of the deal, MGM’s content and Sony Pictures’ assets would be distributed over Comcast’s pay-per-view platform. That venture was managed by Comcast. The private equity-owned company made news earlier this month by taking on actor Tom Cruise and his production partner Paula Wagner to head its affiliate company United Artists.