GekeVenn: COMCAST

Disclosure: I am an employee of Comcast as a team member of Universal Studios in Orlando.

Comcast is preparing to undercut Disney's attempt to acquire 20th Century Fox by arranging a $60 billion cash bid – $8 billion more than Disney is offering. Apparently Comcast's CEO, Brian Roberts, and Disney's, Bob Iger, don't like one another and are often at odds, but the real reason for the fight over Fox involves Hulu. Comcast, Disney, and Fox each own 30 percent of Hulu, with Time-Warner with 10 percent ownership. If Disney acquires Fox, theirs becomes a controlling 60-percent stake.

So far in 2018, Comcast has paid a total of 109 lobbyists with covered positions (previous government employment). This equates to about $4.2 million dollars, a staggering sum that belies a staggering level of government overlap.

The company has successfully completed several mergers and acquisitions in the past. Susan Crawford's book, Captive Audience describes Comcast's general lobbying strategy:

“Comcast hired almost eighty former government employees to help lobby for approval of the merger, including several former chiefs of staff for key legislators on congressional antitrust committees, former FCC staffers and Antitrust Division lawyers, and at least four former members of Congress... Such profligate hiring had two advantages: in addition to attracting talented lobbyists who could speak meaningfully to former colleagues inside government, every lobbying or economic consulting firm whose employee was retained was effectively barred from offering objections to the deal because the firm would have a conflict of interest.” (emphasis added)

Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen doesn't appear on the venn, but it should be noted that he has very close ties to the former governor of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell, who wrote an opinion piece supporting a Comcast merger back in 2010. Rendell often appears as a commentator on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, which last year changed its name to Sports Philadelphia.

Also note that Bush's FCC Chairman was Michael Powell, the son of former US National Security Advisor Colin Powell.

This venn replaces an older Comcast venn produced in 2011.