Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) saw its profit drop 32 percent, or $412 million, in the fourth quarter of 2008, down from $602 million a year earlier.
Comcast’s lower numbers stemmed from the loss of 233,000 basic cable subscribers and from a $600 million writedown of its stake in Clearwire Corp. (CLWR). Comcast has put $1.05 billion into Clearwire’s WiMAX efforts.
Still, despite the not-so-welcome news, Comcast’s sales grew 9 percent to $8.8 billion.
Comcast blamed its subscriber losses on telco competition and the waning economy.
