(AP) For General Electric Co., the NBC entertainment division was always an odd fit.It's a marriage that will likely soon end. As GE prepares for an expected $30 billion deal that will give control of NBC to cable TV operator Comcast Corp., the conglomerate is shifting its focus back to its industrial divisions.
GE is shrinking its finance arm, which has been severely buffeted by the financial crisis. It has sold some businesses and shopped others around. And it is chasing nearly $200 billion in stimulus money from worldwide governments, much of it earmarked for such products as medical equipment and wind turbines. This new GE will likely look a lot like GE did before it acquired NBC in 1986.
"When you are running a company like GE, your roots are ultimately in manufacturing," said Nicholas Heymann, an analyst with Sterne Agee who once worked for GE as an auditor.
GE has reached a tentative agreement to buy out the 20 percent stake in NBC Universal that is held by French media company Vivendi SA, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. GE and Comcast are then expected to turn NBC Universal into a joint venture, with Comcast holding a 51 percent stake. GE likely would fully leave the partnership in a few years.
The financial crisis and recession of the past year have been difficult for GE, which is based in Fairfield, Conn., and has 323,000 employees. The company was forced to slash its dividend by 68 percent. It lost its coveted top bond rating, and its stock fell as much as 90 percent below the peak it had hit in 2000. GE is still trying to work through big losses at its GE Capital lending unit, once the source of half the conglomerate's profits, in areas such as commercial real estate and credit cards.
GE earned $8.1 billion over the first nine months of this year on revenue of $115 billion, but that marked a 43 percent drop in profit and a 15 percent revenue decline.
10 comments:
NBC took a huge hit with the failing of Jay Leno show.
Local new ratings are at its lowest.
Smart business move by GE.
I really feel like a company that owns distribution and production of digitial information such as t.v and internet and even radio to some extent is not good for the consumer. Just like when Comcast charged Dish Network and Direct TV to carry Versus, I could see them charging other companies to carry NBC which hurts the consumer. I know alot of people on this blog are all free market is the way to go but there has to come a time when this whoever has the deepest pockets buys up whatever they want has to be regulated. What is preventing Comcast from making NBC websites load faster... or their tv channel have more bandwidth so they look better in HD all in the name of profit and at the cost of the consumers. Free Market people will say they have a chooice to move to another provider... but to alot of people Comcast is the only one in the area for cable tv.
Perhaps the conflict of interest will be stopped when GE stands to gain from NBC being a mouthpiece for the Global Warming Hoaxsters and the left wing one world government agenda.
Probably not!
Jesus Comcast already sucks so now they are going to suck in a global arena.
Oh...they aren't going to manufacture news any longer?
As far as business goes it's a smart move .
FIRE KEITH OLBERMANN!
IMO comcast & nbc deserve one another, but both have paid too much money. Neither is worth anything!
1:27 don't u mean keith Uberman? & rachael mad-as-a-cow along with him
Rachel Maddow is way to intelligent for the people on this blog.
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