Now it is official - General Electric is looking for a buyer for a 51% stake in NBC Universal - Universal Pictures, the vast array of cable channels, as well as (and least important) the NBC TV network.
Not sure where this will lead, but almost certainly it means either a scaled-down Universal Pictures, or a spin off of Universal into another studio by the buyer.
Among other things, I fear for the future of Focus Films. They've had a weak year, and the big boys are no longer interested in specialized entities.
Per Nikki Finke:
UPDATE: GE Considers Shedding Control Of NBCU; Willing To Cede 51% Ownership Of Spunoff Entity For Right Deal By Nikki Finke | Category: Uncategorized | Thursday October 1, 2009 @ 10:54am Let's get this straight: NBC Universal is now formally in play. There are "5 or 6" interested parties, including Comcast, other media giants, and a consortium of private equity companies, who all are at the preliminary stages of kicking the tires on GE's NBC Universal. "It is very early. UBS just started putting the deal books out on the street for NBC Universal," one of my sources told me this morning about GE's plans to spinoff the TV/movie studio subsidiary if Vivendi as expected exercises its put. Most importantly, GE is willing to cede a controlling 51% stake in NBCU to any potential buyer. That makes sense, because no media giant or other company wants just a passive investment in NBCU. That's why Vivendi may shed it's 20%. Though GE has not yet commented substantively, and probably won't, the company often uses its own CNBC reporters to impart news about GE and its subsidiaries. That is clearly what is happening right now. CNBC's reliable reporter David Faber just updated his own reporting from this morning to say that, in the case of Comcast, GE would spin off NBCU into a new company which could merge with the largest U.S. cable service provider's content assets -- valued at $6 billion, including E! Entertainment channel, the Golf channel, and a group of regional sports networks -- and $7 billion in cash in exchange for 51% economic control. Faber's scenario has GE spinning a significant amount of debt, $12 billion, into the new company which GE would take 49% control. But even Faber admitted that "nothing is imminent" and any deal between Comcast and NBC is "far from certain".
I've got $1.47 and a cough drop. Anyone want to go in with me?
FYC District 9 and Sharlto Copley The Hurt Locker and Jeremy Renner and Kathryn Bigelow Watchmen This Is It Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds Paul Rudd in I Love You, Man
Studios are not irreplaceable, the demise of one may lead to the appearance of others. Major studios have folded in the past, but new ones have come on board.
But regarding the sale, does it affect Universal Studios the theme park at all?
Posts: 873 | Location: Singapore | Registered: February 22, 2005
All of these no comments of this deal means that the deal is signed, sealed and delivered.
I don't particularly like Comcast so I don't think this is a great move for NBC Universal. But it looks like they've been losing money and they need to make this move as a means for survival at this point.
Not sure once this move is consummated whether the two entities will jive and be on the same page.
I used to respect NBC Universal but after the Leno deal, I lost some respect for them.
This is one bed partner that NBC shouldn't be in the sheets with.
Posts: 5425 | Location: "Stay Classy San Diego!" | Registered: June 15, 2006
Originally posted by Aura: *fishes around in pocket*
I've got $1.47 and a cough drop. Anyone want to go in with me?
That should be at least enough to buy Monday nights on NBC.
"A movie is not good because it arrives at conclusions you share, or bad because it does not. A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it: about the way it considers its subject matter, and about how its real subject may be quite different from the one it seems to provide." - Roger Ebert, from the introduction to "Awake in the Dark" (2006)
