Business | Cable television

Enter God, with $1 billion

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“WE SPENT billions of dollars on broadband networks, only to have our stock price languish for two years,” says one battle-weary cable veteran. “Then along comes Bill Gates and our stock jumps a couple of dollars in as many days.” Or as Tom Wolzein of Sanford Bernstein and one of Wall Street's rare cable enthusiasts ruefully puts it, “It's nice to have God on your side.” God, in the guise of Microsoft's boss, looked upon cable this week and saw that it was good and sprinkled $1 billion of his spare $9 billion or so over the industry, in an investment in Comcast, America's fourth-largest cable-television operator.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Enter God, with $1 billion”

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