Comcast

About 3,000 Comcast digital video recorders - a technology critical for the company's growth strategy - were distributed to customers in the Philadelphia area and in San Jose, Calif., with software glitches that impaired their operation, according to the manufacturer. Comcast said yesterday that it now has a fix for the problem: new software that is being distributed automatically over cable systems where the devices were installed. In the meantime, the Philadelphia-based cable company is asking customers to be patient and report problems to 1-800-266-2278.

Columbia Gas System Inc., the Wilmington natural gas pipeline company, posted a loss in the third quarter after deducting special charges totaling $103.1 million. The after-tax charges include a $39.2 million provision for environmental- compliance costs; a $24.2 million write-down for previously capitalized gas costs and a $39.7 million charge to cover the costs of a new business plan for its Cove Point, Md., gas terminal. Before the special charges, Columbia would have recorded a $7.5 million loss because of low seasonal demand for gas, the company said.

Comcast Corp., the cable-television firm, which moved to Philadelphia from Bala Cynwyd Monday, has reported its usual combination of increased cash flow and a net loss for the first quarter of 1989. The firm's operating cash flow, which measures income before interest, depreciation, amortization and income taxes, increased 31 percent compared with the same period in 1988. Cash flow is considered a key measure of financial performance in the cable-television industry because such firms must borrow heavily to finance capital improvements and acquisitions of new systems.

Even the Comcast name was on the table over the last year as the company considered a rebranding plan to communicate that it was now both a cable-TV provider and a media conglomerate through its NBC Universal subsidiary. NBC wasn't considered, but other names were, D'Arcy Rudnay, Comcast's chief communications officer, said Tuesday afternoon in a 52d-floor conference room. The company ultimately decided to keep Comcast - a combination of "communications" and "broadcast" coined by company founder Ralph Roberts in the 1960s - with NBC's colorful peacock logo centered over it. The font was specially created by the global design firm frog - that's right, lowercase "f" - that worked on Apple products in the 1980s.

Comcast Corp. agreed to take a $150-million stake in Arris Group Inc., the telecom equipment supplier that last month agreed to buy Horsham-based set-top box maker Motorola Home from Google Inc. As a result, according to Arris, Comcast and Google will each own about 7.85 percent of Arris shares. Arris in December said it would buy Motorola Home in a deal valued at $2.35 billion in cash and stock.    - Reid Kanaley

Everything's moving to the cloud. Even business phones. Comcast Corp. will announce Tuesday at an industry conference in Orlando, Fla., a new package of high-definition business phones with software features that, for instance, allow sales staff or other employees to transfer on Microsoft Outlook an incoming phone call to another phone or phones. In its most basic form, Comcast's new "Business VoiceEdge" service replaces "PBX" circuit-switching equipment, typically on the premises of a small business, with phone service that routes calls directly through Comcast's telecommunications network.

Comcast Corp. has chosen Burrell Communications, of Chicago, as its advertising agency of record to market its products and services to African American consumers. As part of its deal to acquire control of news and entertainment giant NBC Universal Inc., Comcast has separately agreed to add four cable networks owned, or partly owned, by African Americans over the next eight years.     - Bob Fernandez  

Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable company, closed above $100 billion in market capitalization Tuesday for the first time. Since buying a controlling stake in NBCUniversal on Jan. 29, 2011, Comcast has seen its stock increase in price by more than two-thirds. The company has benefited from improving prime-time ratings among 18- to 49-year-olds at the network, which climbed from last place to first this season. Comcast, which has about 22 million cable-TV subscribers, now has a higher market valuation than McDonald's Corp., Home Depot Inc., and Walt Disney Co. And it's closing in on technology heavyweights such as Intel Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., and Qualcomm Inc. Comcast's ascension is emblematic of both a successful acquisition and an industry that has weathered difficult economic times, said Frank Louthan, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates in Atlanta.

Bloomberg L.P., the New York financial-information and news giant, has threatened to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission that would force Comcast Corp. to relocate Bloomberg TV to an area on the cable-channel lineup with other news channels. Bloomberg says this "neighborhooding" provision is in the 280- page FCC order in January that allowed Comcast to acquire control of NBC Universal Inc. Comcast is ignoring the provision, Bloomberg contends. Neighborhooding refers to grouping together similar channels, such as CNN, CNBC, Fox News, and MSNBC.

Penned by the ghost writer behind popular autobiographies of Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca and "Mayflower Madam" Sydney Biddle Barrows, An Incredible Dream, a self-published authorized corporate history, has been released by Comcast Corp. The 424-page, 27-chapter book is being distributed to more than 100,000 Comcast and NBCUniversal employees and will become an orientation must-read for new hires. The book cover bears an image of Ralph Roberts, the lead company cofounder, now 92 years old, with arms open, seemingly embracing a crowd.