General Electric and Comcast reached a tentative agreement Friday on key points of a deal for Comcast to take control of NBC Universal, the New York Times reports.
A formal announcement could come sometime next week, the paper said, citing people briefed on the discussions. One remaining obstacle is negotiations with Vivendi over its 20 percent stake in NBCU, which analysts expect G.E. to buy. Those talks could still fall apart.
Under the deal being discussed between G.E. and Comcast, Comcast would own about 51 percent of NBCU, and contribute several billions of dollars, as well as cable networks. G.E. would keep the remaining stake and contribute about $12 billion in debt.
–Elizabeth Jensen
Lets see, we have GE selling a 51% stake of NBC to Comcast in the works. Meanwhile rumor already is circling that Comcast then will turn around selling NBC and its ‘O&O’ stations to a third party. News Corp sharks are said to be interested in picking up NBC. Well, I guess it’s a good time for GE to sell NBC, then again for Viviandi to get out as well, especially since it only has a 20% stake in NBCU. One wonders if News Corp is primarily interested in getting control of Universal Pictures. Could be? However, I wonder if both Comcast and News Corp might get in a little hot water since News Corp already owns not only the FOX Network, but a pretty full stable of ‘O&O’ Fox Stations. Granted, I feel Fox getting control of NBC remains questionable at best. GE has never had a golden touch when programming NBC prime-time, nor has it really been a leader in news – save its own promotions. Late night has done well for NBC, but the move to put Conan in at 11:30PM has not worked out that well. NBC meanwhile killed itself on cheap ’reality’ overload, and Leno’s 10PM show five days a week looks like a desperate ’Hail Mary’ play – obviously an economy move for a network that has very few programs of rating note. Could this be the death of NBC as we know it? …Stay tuned!
– Andrew, MALL727.net –
Would be interesting of FOX ends up controlling NBC. So you would have hannity on FOX and Limbaugh on NBC to replace oberman.
Maybe in a few years they can also buy CNN and everything would fall into place. One news outlet for all.