Comcast CFO to head up $4.5B acquisition arm

Comcast is unleashing its dealmaking Chief Financial Officer Michael Angelakis.

The country’s No. 1 cable company on Tuesday said Angelakis would soon leave the company to helm a separate investment company backed by $4 billion in Comcast cash.

The move, in practical terms, turns the CFO into the head of the largest private equity player in the media world.

And that’s a job Angelakis is familiar with.

The 49-year-old whiz was with Providence Equity Partners before helping Comcast make deals to acquire both NBCUniversal and Time Warner Cable.

Angelakis’ unexpected move puts him in position to take on his former Providence boss Jonathan Nelson.

The new investment vehicle, with a total of $4.5 billion in cash, has not yet been named.

The move will also allow Comcast the chance to be “investing in and operating growth-oriented companies, both domestically and internationally,” Comcast said in a statement.

Up to now, Comcast has not expanded overseas.

However, a cheap Euro currency makes international players less expensive.

The move — to expand Comcast’s ability to grow by using an outside vehicle — mirrors the playbook of cable pioneer John Malone.

Malone’s Liberty Media invested in Charter Communications via Liberty Media and has urged its CEO Tom Rutledge to act as a “horizontal acquisition machine” to create a competitor to Comcast in cable land.

“Look at Malone’s role in the cable industry — he used capital very effectively to build businesses without his [money],” said one source close to the the company.

TiVo CEO Tom Rogers told The Post that “other companies have venture arms but I can’t remember one where a former CFO had so much dedicated capital.”

“At Comcast everyone probably wants to talk to you about new things they’re doing, and perhaps they’re saying we should have a more dedicated approach,” Rogers said.

Ironically, while media insiders said the Comcast move mimicked Malone, Charter, the country’s No. 4 cable company, announced that it was buying Bright House Networks, the No. 6 cable company in the US, for $10.4 billion in cash and stock.

Advance/Newhouse, which owns Bright House, will retain a stake in the combined company.

The deal is contingent on Comcast’s acquisition of TWC. That merger remains in front of federal regulators.

“Interesting timing,” quipped BTIG’s media analyst Rich Greenfield, who puts the chances of Comcast winning regulatory approval of its mega-deal at just 30 percent.

The completion of the Bright House deal would make Charter the No. 2 cable company.

Meanwhile, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is looking for a new CFO. Some pointed to Disney’s CFO Jay Rasulo as a possible candidate as he is currently without a contract.

Comcast shares closed Tuesday at $56.47, down 14 cents.