Comcast purchases majority stake in NBC Universal, awaiting regulatory approval

One of the world’s largest corporations this morning officially announced its intentions to sell one of the most storied media brands to the country’s biggest cable-TV and broadband-Internet company.

General Electric‘s $30 billion sale of a 51 percent majority stake in NBC Universal to Center City-based Comcast comes after months of highly-publicized talks. The NBC acquisition will make Comcast the largest media company in the country, with $51 billion in annual revenue and more than $100 billion in assets, as the Inquirer reports, topping Walt Disney Co.

“This deal is a perfect fit for Comcast and will allow us to become a leader in the development and distribution of multiplatform “anytime, anywhere” media that American consumers are demanding,” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said in a statement this morning.

Today’s announcement, which was widely expected, doesn’t mean the deal is done.

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Center City’s Final Form Games keeps it simple

A screen capture from "Jamestown" - Final Form's first title.

Edits: updated some brotherly confusion.

Mike Ambrogi along with his brother Tim and Hal Larsson don’t leave anything to chance. When all three plotted their move to Philly from the West Coast a few years back, the trio used spreadsheets to help time out the cross country operations.

I did a look for one of ‘em recently but didn’t turn it up, says Larsson.

The three are the founders of Final Form games, a video game studio based in what the guys like to call the “mathematical center” of Center City: 15th and Market.

Final Form Games is one of a handful of studios, along with the video game lobbying group VGI Philly, to begin building the foundations of a video game industry based in Philadelphia.

“There isn’t a huge game industry here. But we know what we are doing, and we can become a part of that and help grow what’s here,” says Tim Ambrogi. It’s exciting being here when it just starts. ”

Currently, Final Form is working on its first title: a SNES-style top-down shooter  tentatively titled “Jamestown” – about the colonization of Mars by the 17th century British explorers. The group plans to release the game to the PC in the first half of next year and then, if all goes well, to the Xbox Live Arcade.

But the road to Philly was a bumpy one. Just a few years ago, all three were in California but it took a detailed plan to finally set up shop in the city, a plan they say was largely motivated by “ladies and the sandwiches.”

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Google Zeitgeist shows top Philadelphia search queries; colleges and SEPTA reign in ’09

Let me Google that for you, Philadelphia.

The search giant has released its 2009 year-end Zeitgeist, a list of its users’ most popular search queries, a reflection of cultural phenomenon from Google’s rear-view. Studying aggregation of billions of searches, Google yearly tries to capture a “spirit of the times.”

This year, Philadelphia-specific searches were listed, in a city-by-city collection of queries.

We’re not sure what it is, but colleges Penn, Temple and Community College of Philadelphia, specifically were the most often searched, appearing eight times in a top ten list. It’s proof that yes, these kids certainly know how to Google, and they’re having a hard time remembering URLs for sites they visit often.

The SEPTA strike and the transportation authority’s Web site were the second and fourth most searched topics respectively, and given the short lifespan of the strike, it’s apparent that Google’s servers were hit hard and fast by the contract negotiations, as were commuters.

No mention of the Phillies, Free Library shut-downs or Arthur Kade, amazingly enough. Not even Comcast, with its expected merger with NBC Universal, was able to crack the top ten.

There’s always next year. Full list after the jump.

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Comcast comments could hurt city broadband stimulus plans

Another blow to Philadelphia’s bid for federal stimulus dollars to help bridge the digital divide may have come the way of a Center City skyscraper.

Comcast has filed controversial commentary that some speculate could hurt Philadelphia-based requests for broadband stimulus grants.

In a move seen elsewhere in the U.S., the Center City-based telecommunications giant submitted formal comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on three Philadelphia-based applications – each seeking a piece of $4.6 billion in broadband grants – including the infrastructure portion of the city’s Digital Philadelphia vision.

Local pundits say the move is intended to challenge Philly’s broadband proposals. Broadband activists, like Rutgers University Professor Todd Wolfson, say it is an attempt to suggest that the applications are ineligible for grants, which seek to provide money to areas “unserved” or “underserved” by broadband connectivity.

The NTIA requires that grants go to locations where the rate of broadband subscription is below 40 percent of households. Though broadband penetration is estimated to be as low as 50 percent in Philadelphia, Comcast’s actual coverage blankets higher percentages of the population.

Comcast submitted to the NTIA a summary of its coverage area and subscriber information in the Philadelphia region, Comcast spokesperson Sena Fitzmaurice tells Technically Philly.

“We would not describe it as a ‘challenge,’ we describe it as filing factual information,” she said in a telephone interview. “There was an opportunity to object, but this is just a straight description of where we provide service and where we don’t.”

Wolfson, though, says it’s about business competition. He points to a story published in October by Bloomberg, pinning Comcast Vice President David L. Cohen against proposals that undermine Comcast’s business.

“Those applications don’t qualify for funding primarily because they are applications to provide service in areas where there is already broadband service,” Cohen told the publication.

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