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 During 2005, we reorganized our management team to focus
the talent of our people company-wide, creating one operations team,
one marketing and product development team, and one engineering
team to serve all of our products — video, voice, data and wireless.
As convergence continues to take hold, this new structure will improve
our ability to develop better and more integrated services that are
also easier for customers to purchase and use.
We Are Positioned to Compete —
and Determined to Win
We finished 2005 with one of the strongest balance sheets in our history. All three major rating
agencies upgraded our debt ratings during the year, and we are now solidly investment grade.
Free cash flow(1) for the year reached $2.6 billion, helping us to invest $786 million in new content and technologies to drive future growth and to reinvest $2.3 billion in our stock. Over the past two
years, we have invested $5 billion in our stock and related securities, representing approximately
7.5 percent of our shares outstanding. Our Board recently authorized an additional stock buyback
of up to $5 billion.
We will apply a similar game plan in 2006, investing to differentiate our products and launching new services while buying back stock at what we think are attractive levels, given our opportunities for growth. We’ll expand our programming and seek new opportunities to increase the value of our content portfolio. We’re committed to creating new offerings that clearly distinguish Comcast products in the marketplace.
At the same time, we’ll continue to invest in the development of our people, and I believe this will prove to be one of our greatest competitive advantages. Steve Burke’s vision and
energy — coupled with the core values that my father, Ralph, cemented here long ago — have helped us build an organization that is not only a leader of the cable industry, but also of the
evolving digital world. We cannot thank each of our 80,000 employees enough for their outstanding
efforts in 2005. Their hard work and unflinching determination have enabled us to build a powerful
new engine for growth that will drive our business to higher and higher levels of performance.
For all of these reasons, I remain firmly confident in our approach, our business strategy and our team. My confidence only grew as I walked the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year. As I talked to business leaders there — from device manufacturers and technology giants to leading content companies — I kept hearing the same sentiments voiced over and over again, including “make it simple,” “give consumers more choices” and “put the customer in control.”
The experience was energizing, because these watchwords have guided every decision we’ve made at Comcast for the past decade. We’ll continue to maintain this focus in everything we do, as we seek to expand our leadership as America’s preferred broadband communications service provider.
It’s a great privilege to help manage this amazing company.
Sincerely,
Brian L. Roberts
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Comcast Corporation
February 21, 2006
| (1) | Operating Cash Flow is defined as operating income before depreciation and amortization and impairment charges, if any, related to fixed and intangible assets and gains or losses from the sale of assets, if any.
Free Cash Flow is defined as Operating Cash Flow less net interest, cash paid for income taxes, and capital expenditures. Reconciliation of this item appears under “Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures.” |
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