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Comcast’s bid for a controlling stake in NBC Universal was a complex deal that featured many HBS alumni in starring, supporting, and back-story roles. Steve Burke (MBA ’82), the COO of Comcast who will run the new enterprise, has high-profile business, especially TV business, in his genes. His father, Dan Burke (MBA ’55), is the former CEO of Capital Cities/ABC and a television industry legend; and an uncle, James Burke (MBA ’49), was chairman of Johnson & Johnson during the 1982 Tylenol tampering incident and became famous for his leadership through that crisis. His brother, Bill Burke (MBA ’92), was president of TBS, later headed up the Weather Channel, and authored a biography of Ted Turner.
CEO Jeff Immelt (MBA ’82) of General Electric, which owned NBC Universal, was an HBS classmate of Burke’s, a connection that led to the code word “Crimson” during part of the deal’s secret negotiations, the New York Times (December 3, 2009) reported.
The transaction “began in earnest” last March, according to the Times, when Steve Burke and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts met with Burke’s sectionmate, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon (MBA ’82).
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