Los Angeles Times

Brian Roberts has been the force behind Comcast's growth. Now he's in the hunt for Fox

Brian Roberts was about 13 when he started working at Comcast in the early 1970s, earning 25 cents an hour assembling payment coupon books to send to the Philadelphia company's cable TV customers. As a high school student, he would shadow his father - the company's co-founder - at meetings with bankers and lawyers.

So when Roberts graduated in 1981 from the Wharton School, he figured he would work with his dad at Comcast. But Ralph Roberts suggested that he first spend a couple of years at another firm - advice that did not sit well with his son.

He was "persistent, day after day, until finally, he looked me in the eye and said: 'Why are you rejecting me?' " the late Ralph Roberts would recall in a 2003 book, "Wired to Win: Entrepreneurs of the American Cable Industry."

Brian Roberts' tenacity paid off: His father relented and sent him to a Comcast operation in Trenton, N.J. Brian Roberts climbed poles, strung cable wire and learned about marketing. He joined the corporate office in 1984, was named president in 1990, at the age of 31, and

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times5 min read
Gaza Protests Roil Universities From California To New York; Tensions Grow At Humboldt, Berkeley
LOS ANGELES — Officials shut down the campus of Cal Poly Humboldt on Monday night after masked pro-Palestinian protesters occupied an administrative building and barricaded the entrance as Gaza-related demonstrations roiled campuses across the nation
Los Angeles Times2 min read
Eric Braeden Of 'Young And The Restless' Nominated For First Daytime Emmy In 20 Years
Eric Braeden, the actor who has spent 40-plus years playing self-made businessman Victor Newman on "The Young and the Restless," has just been honored with his 10th Daytime Emmy nomination — two decades after his first win. Braeden, nominated for lea
Los Angeles Times3 min readCrime & Violence
Man Broke Into LA Mayor’s Home During A ‘Short Gap’ In LAPD Security, Chief Says
LOS ANGELES — The man who broke into Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ home on Sunday, making it to the second floor, arrived at a moment when there were no security officers on the premises, Interim Police Chief Dominic Choi said Tuesday. Choi said the

Related Books & Audiobooks