After several expensive failures, Microsoft Corp., the nation's largest software company, is attempting once again to make its name in the cable-television industry - this time by tying its fortunes to Comcast Corp., soon to be the nation's largest cable operator. For its help in bankrolling Comcast's $52.2 billion acquisition of AT&T Broadband, Microsoft secured the right to offer Internet service over the merged AT&T Comcast Corp.'s lines, plus the opportunity to write some software used with the cable boxes of at least some of the merged company's 22 million cable-TV subscribers.
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