Comcast and GE were debating how to use the proceeds, with Comcast wanting to keep the cash in the company while GE wanted a dividend. While Comcast held the title of the nation’s leading cable operator by a wide margin, its status as a content player was always second tier, with middling networks such as E!, G4 and Golf forming the basis of its channel portfolio.Ī source familiar with the situation said talks accelerated in July 2012 when NBC Universal sold its stake in A&E Television Networks for $3 billion. They are not just a cable operator,” said John Tinker, an analyst at Maxim Group.Ĭomcast turned its attention to NBC after a failed $54 billion hostile takeover attempt of Walt Disney Co in 2004 that ultimately led to the resignation of that company’s CEO, Michael Eisner, after more than 20 years on the job. They are an integrated media and entertainment company. “The reality is content has gotten stronger and stronger and safer and safer, so Comcast should be trading at a premium to the cable operators. The rationale behind the deal differentiates Comcast from rivals such as Time Warner Cable Inc, which separated content from distribution. Tuesday’s deal comes at least two years sooner than planned and creates a $39 billion business owed primarily to the success of marrying cable distribution with cable programming. That gives it full control of one of the industry’s largest and most profitable stable of cable networks, as well as the NBC broadcast network with its recognizable peacock logo.Ĭombining properties such as USA Network, Universal Studios and more than 22 million cable subscribers, the deal completes a 50-year transformation for Comcast, which was founded by Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts’ father, Ralph, in 1963.Ĭomcast bought 51 percent of NBC Universal in 2011 after winning antitrust approval from the Justice Department. The nation’s largest cable operator unveiled plans on Tuesday to buy out General Electric Co’s remaining 49 percent stake in the NBC Universal joint venture.

Comcast Corp on Tuesday said it would buy General Electric's remaining 49 percent equity stake in their NBCUniversal joint venture for about $16.7 billion, speeding up a deal that had not been expected until at least late 2014. The news ticker outside the Today Show announces GE's sale of NBC to Comcast, in New York, in this Decemfile photo.

Nbcuniversal profile credits