Investor Says Oust Comcast CEO; Reaction Mixed

With Comcast's stock price down 43% this year, a major shareholder has called for the  cable operator to give CEO Brian Roberts the boot. The proposal has met a tepid response, the Wall Street Journal reports. The call for Roberts' head is premature, say analysts and investors, especially given the current industry-wide cable slump.

Major shareholder Chieftain Capital Management Inc., demanding Roberts' ouster, called his decade-long leadership a "zero-return" "Comcastrophe." Other investors counter that the roots of many of the company's problems lie in the floundering economy and competitors' heavy investment in fighting Comcast. They contend Roberts' departure without a heir apparent would solve nothing.