Timeline: NBCUniversal buy latest in Comcast's active deal-making history

Comcast Corp's decision to purchase the remaining stake of NBCUniversal is the latest in an active deal-making history for the largest U.S. cable operator. Below are other acquisition milestones for the company since it began operating five decades ago.

1963 - Company is founded with the purchase of a 1,200-subscriber cable system in Tupelo, Mississippi

1986 - Comcast doubles in size to 1.2 million cable customers by purchasing a stake in Group W Cable

1988 - Comcast expands its cable reach with the purchase of 50 percent of Storer Communications Inc

1998 - Comcast acquires Jones Intercable Inc and Prime Communications, adding more than 1.5 million customers

2000 - Comcast adds 1.3 million cable subscribers with the purchase of Lenfest Communications

2002 - Comcast purchases AT&T Broadband, the cable service of telephone giant AT&T, for $30 billion, creating the No. 1 U.S. cable TV operator with more than 21 million subscribers

2004 - Comcast drops a $54 billion hostile bid to buy media giant Walt Disney Co

2005 - Time Warner Inc and Comcast buy bankrupt cable operator Adelphia Communications Corp for $17.6 billion. Adelphia collapsed into bankruptcy after the company's founding Rigas family siphoned off millions of dollars for personal use and overstated financial results. Adelphia founder John Rigas and son Timothy were convicted of fraud.

2011 - Comcast acquires 51 percent of NBC Universal from General Electric for $13.8 billion, creating a $30 billion business that includes broadcast, cable networks, movie studios and theme parks

2013 - Comcast announces it will buy the remaining 49 percent of NBC Universal from GE for $16.7 billion

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Bernard Orr)