Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, at a Sanford Bernstein investor converence today, on last week's acquisition of Plaxo, operator of the Pulse social-network system, and other deals:
  "A start-up company wants to work with somebody like Comcast. Take Plaxo for instance. They do (online) community, they do address book management. Well, we have 10 million address books, we have a community of 24 million people who do television. So OK, we see a convergence coming.
  "These are leaders in that space, and innovators... So there's certain companies occasionally, these tend to be very small, that can help innovate inside our company and can help take us and lead the inovation we need to do in a competitive business. And so, that's the plan...
  "Let's not concede web design, web creation, monetary gains, to every start-up. Let's try, in a modest way, to go about it (ourselves)... We've been building quietly about that notion. Fancast, our latest, anybody who wants to consume video on the Net, we have video relationships with every content company. Why not use that? Fancast got milions of users. It didn't cost very much to create. "
  More on the Plaxo deal here:
  Today's Webcast here: Plaxo, Fandango, small-business discussion starts around 33 minutes in.

  It's not hard to get a roomful of Philadelphia boosters to brag the city is affordable and the region is pleasant and easy to get around -- compared to New York, or Washington, D.C. It's harder to get them to explain why out-of-town companies haven't been more eager to move here.
  The "Region on the Rise" conference, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and the General Building Contractors Association met Tuesday on the unfinished 25th floor of Liberty Property Trust's new Comcast tower.
  Deputy mayor and ex-New York developer and -D.C. city official Andrew Altman, after touring the Comcast building, called it "an incredible slice of the 21st Century economy," with floors-full of "programmers in jeans" alternating with "venture capitalist folks in casual business attire" and button-down "corporate" officers. He said the Naval Business Center offers another good advertisement for Philadelphia diversity, with its mix of shipyard workers, Urban Outfitters designers and the state-subsidized Tastykake bakery that recently broke ground.
  Citizens Bank's top real estate lender Charlie Cooke acknowledged that the recent scarcity of conduit financing and other credit for builders hasn't quite made up for the surplus of equity investment capital -- though his own bank "is in business. We are lending,” especially in the apartment market, where demand and rents are surging as home sales fall.
  Penn vice president Anna Papageorge reviewed the timetable for $500 million in West Bank Schuylkill development, including Brandywine Realty Trust's planned Cira 2 tower, if BlackRock or some other big investment company can be lured to take more premium Philadelphia space.
  And Dennis Yablonsky, head of economic development in the Rendell administration, warned tenants of the big increase in Peco Energy prices expected under the state's deregulation schedule over the next couple of years. "You'll want that LEEDs (green-building) conservation designation," he added.

  Ben Franklin Technology Partners, the taxpayer-backed Pennsylvania start-up financier, spreads $2.3 million to sell wrinkle cream, water heating, online ads and other small business plans:
  Bret J. Dunlap's Advanced Mobile Solutions Worldwide Inc., Wayne, which sells mobile-phone ad software to newspapers, $250,000.
  Shimin Luo's American Hometec Inc., which designs tankless water heating systems, $100,000. Luo has promised to move the company to Pennsylvania.
  ColdLight Solutions LLC, Fort Washington, which offers data-oriented market research, $250,000.
  Kevin Casey's Collages.net Inc., Langhorne, a Web site developer, $150,000., bringing total Ben and related support to $500,000.
  Keith A. Greathouse (ex-Dermik Labs)'s DermAdvance Pharmaceuticals Inc., Berwyn, anti-wrinkle cream, $500,000.
  Chris Conway's Healthy Humans LLC, Wayne, which is setting up a Web site for sick people "to live healthy and well," $150,000.
  Dan Roitman's Internet Order LLC, Philadelphia, which direct-markets Pimsleur language courses, $200,000.
  Paul Mellon Jr.'s Novetas (formerly New Age Blast Media, part of stud-welder New Age Fastening Systems Inc.), which recyles glass for use in sand-blasting, is moving to Pennsylvania to collect $300,000.
  Susan Ng's and Peter Ringer's Real-Time Tomography, LLC, Villanova,  breast cancer imaging, $150,000.
  Chris Stanchak's TicketLeap LLC, online event ticket sales, $250,000.
  Other deals today:
  Rohm & Haas adds a Vietnam plant to its global operations. Inquirer story here.
  Virtua starts work on its $32 million Washington Township (Gloucester) facility. Inquirer story here. 

  Tyco International did it last year -- splitting into three companies after CEO Ed Breen admitted the Princeton-based conglomerate was worth more in pieces.
  Unisys is under pressure to do it -- taking major shareholder Clay Lifflander onto the board last week after he urged management to separate the company's government-contracts business from its tech business. 
  Should General Electric have to do it too? Is it enough to get out of the washer-and-oven business? The Washington Post's Steven Pearlstein says Wall Street is pushing too hard, read his column here.

  Milestone Partners, the Wayne private equity group started by Scott Warren and Robert G. Levine, says it's sold EB Brands, a Yonkers, NY firm that markets "high-margin, high-impulse" products from Samsonite, Everlast, Sharper Image and other companies to retailers like Wal-Mart and TJX, to Cortec Group, New York, for an undisclosed sum.
  Milestone bought EB in 2000; sales have nearly tripled, to over $100 million, said a person familiar with the company.
  Lazard Middle Market represented EB, GE Antares Capital helped finance the deal. More at www.milestonepartners.com