Comcast forms venture firm with CFO Michael Angelakis

Comcast Corp. is forming a venture capital firm with more than $4 billion in assets that will be run by the company’s longtime chief financial officer, Michael Angelakis.

Angelakis, one of Comcast’s most experienced and prominent executives, will step down from his current position to run the new company after a transition period, the company said Tuesday in a statement.

The new venture would focus on investing in and operating growth-oriented companies in the U.S. and abroad.

Angelakis has long been one of the most trusted deputies of Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts. Angelakis designed the complicated maneuvers that allowed Comcast to take control of NBCUniversal by buying General Electric’s long-held interest without leveraging Comcast’s balance sheet.

He also was a key architect in structuring the proposed Time Warner Cable transaction, which is awaiting federal approval. That deal would make Comcast a juggernaut with 29 million subscribers, including in the nation’s largest markets of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Angelakis, 50, joined Comcast in 2007 and became its CFO the following year.

He has “helped transform Comcast into the media and technology company that we are today,” Roberts said in a statement.

The new venture would have ambitions and “the resources to pursue new areas of growth and diversification for Comcast,” the company said in its statement.

Comcast will seed the new firm with $4 billion. Angelakis will contribute at least $40 million of his own money. The company would be run similar to a private equity firm with other senior executives making equity investments.

The new company will have an exclusive, 10-year arrangement with Comcast, which will be the sole outside investor.

Angelakis is expected to stay on at Comcast through a transition period while a new CFO is identified. Should regulators approve Comcast’s proposed $45-billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable, Angelakis would then serve as an advisor to Comcast in the early stages of its integration of the Time Warner Cable systems.

“As we enter the final phase of the Time Warner Cable transaction, this is a great time to begin a transition and I am excited to start this new, entrepreneurial company,” Angelakis said.

Before joining Comcast, the former banker was a managing director of private equity firm Providence Equity Partners. Before that, Angelakis was CEO of State Cable TV Corp. and Aurora Telecommunications.

He serves as deputy chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and is a trustee of Babson College.

Twitter: @MegJamesLAT