Tyco CEO Breen resigns from Comcast board

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Edward Breen, the chairman and chief executive of Tyco International Ltd., is resigning from Comcast Corp.’s board of directors, where he has served for the last six years.

The move comes a little over two months after Tyco announced plans to split itself into three separate companies. In a letter to Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts, Breen said he would be ‘devoting significant time and energy over the next 12 months to the selection of new boards of directors and management teams for the three companies and to ensuring their successful launch as independent public companies.’

Breen also noted that although he will be giving up his Tyco titles after the new companies are formed, there is a potential for a conflict of interest with Comcast. Breen said he is becoming an advisor to home security company ADT, a business that Comcast also has a growing presence in.

‘I believe that it is appropriate for me to resign to avoid even the appearance of conflict between Comcast and what soon will be a stand-alone ADT home security company,’ Breen said to Roberts.

Breen is the second Comcast director to resign in recent months. In September, Decker Anstrom, a longtime cable executive, left the board and was replaced by former Discovery and CBS executive Johnathan Rodgers.

-- Joe Flint

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