Comcast to pay $6.5 billion in NBC deal
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
By: Peter Crimmins
pcrimmins@whyy.org
Comcast has announced a partnership NBC Universal.
Comcast, which is headquarted in Philadelphia, will pay 6.5 billion dollars in cash to GE for a controlling share of NBC, along with over $7 billion in digital media properties. Other than bragging rights, Philadelphia will not be immediately affected by the deal.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts says its programming business has been "sub-scale," and he wants to capitalize on NBC's cable and internet properties – like the popular Hulu website. NBC's broadcast network has not been doing well.
NBC's programming business will complement Comcast's distribution network, says Roberts, and the businesses are so different that there should be very few employee layoffs.
Roberts: The overlap is very small – 30,000 employees at NBC, we have 100,000. 97% don't overlap. There will be a small overlap in headquarters functions – but very minor. It's different from other joint ventures where synergy is dependent on reductions.
The joint venture will not be finalized until it passes a federal regulation investigation, which could take as long as a year. The Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce is looking forward to having the largest media conglomerate in the country based in their city.