Comcast Corp. dates back to 1963, when businessman Ralph Roberts got into the cable TV business in its early days. He spent $500,000 for American Cable Systems, a company in Tupelo, Miss., that strung up cable to carry TV broadcasts to homes that couldn't get clear reception over the free airwaves.

  Some key events in NBC's history:

  NBC got its start in 1926 as the nation's first radio network. Its parent company, the Radio Corporation of America, figured people would buy the radios it made if they had interesting things to listen to.

  Some key events in Comcast Corp.'s history:

  Side-by-side comparisons of Comcast Corp. and NBC Universal:

  Comcast Corp. announced Thursday it plans to buy a majority stake in NBC Universal for $13.75 billion, giving the nation's largest cable TV operator control of the Peacock network, an array of cable channels and a major movie studio.

  Movieclips.com, an online movie clip-sharing service, launched in beta test mode on Wednesday touting the cooperation of six major Hollywood studios amid an industrywide slowdown in DVD sales.

  Sigma Designs Inc. reported a third-quarter loss Wednesday, citing a drop in demand for its Internet protocol television products for a drop in revenue.

  In a move that begins to limit the amount of "Free Access" to Internet News Feeds, Google will now begin to let online News Sources, Like those of Murdoch's, begin to charge fees after a limited number of free viewings. this could have an adverse effect on News Gatherers like us.

  Comcast Corp. will likely have to accept substantial conditions if the cable TV provider wants to win regulatory approval for control of NBC Universal's broadcast network, cable channels and movie studios.

  More than a year after launching in the U.S., MySpace Music is crossing the pond and arriving in Britain.

  Synopsys Inc. said Wednesday that its fiscal fourth-quarter profit sank as revenue declined and operating expenses rose. The maker of chip testing and development software also gave first-quarter and fiscal 2010 guidance that was lower than analysts expected.

  THERE'S a thin line between technology being stylish and geeky.

  Christopher Soghoian, a graduate student at Indiana University's School of Informatics and Computing, has made public an audio recording of Sprint/Nextel's Electronic Surveillance Manager describing how his company has provided GPS location data about its wireless customers to la …