Month: October 2021

Comcast reported quarterly earnings this past Thursday, and despite its CFO’s recent warning of slower broadband growth, results slightly exceeded analyst expectations. Decent revenue growth from Comcast Cable and a strong bounceback performance from Covid levels from NBCU led to 19% revenue growth in the quarter. Wireless growth was also strong.

Comcast’s business has growing complexity, as Peacock, Sky, Wireless, and in future quarters its smart TV product all need to be analyzed. The following reports cover the results from different angles.

Central Florida’s Universal Orlando Resort has record-breaking quarter, said top exec – Orlando Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

Comcast begins work in Bethany Beach | Bethany Beach | coastalpoint.co

Comcast’s broadband growth slows but wireless may be a hidden gem – MarketWatch

Comcast Takes $520M Loss On Peacock, Doesn’t Disclose New Sign-Ups – The Hollywood Reporter (ampproject.org)

Comcast’s Profit Doubles, Boosted by Tokyo Olympics, Theme Parks – WSJ (ampproject.org)

Apple And Comcast Set Two-Way Streaming Distribution Deal – Deadline (ampproject.org)

Comcast (CMCSA) earnings Q3 2021 (cnbc.com)

Tom Paine

Its a classic American story, of the solo entrepreneur taking on the world to build a successful company that competes with huge global enterprises.

Jay Deakins started Deacom out of his basement in the Philly suburbs. Since its founding in 1995, Deacom grew, gradually but consistently, to being acquired by Fort Worth-based ECI Software Solutions, announced today. Terms were not disclosed.

I first wrote about Deacom back in 2011, when it added Yeungling, the brewery, as a customer (it remains one today). Deacom now has 0ver 200 customers and 200 employees.

Deacom provides SaaS and on-premise ERP systems for small & medium batch and process manufacturers (which require different metrics) and distributors. ECI already has an ERP solution for discrete manufacturers.

Jay Deakins will no longer be part of the combined company, but his son Scott Deakins will remain as the Deacom Business Unit Leader.

While Deacom had no external equity funding, ECI is majority-owned by PE firm Leonard Green & Partners, which in turn bought out previous investors Carlyle Group and Apax Partners in late 2020. (Apax continued as a minority owner.) That deal valued ECI at $2.5 billion, per reports. ECI has grown through more than 15 acquisitions and now has more than 1,000 employees.

And though its unlikely that Deacom could have pursued an IPO on its own, ECi is probably in a position to do so if it wishes.

There may also be additional opportunities for rolling up other SME products & services through one provider.