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Weeks likely still remain before any more actionable steps would be taken in Comcast’s very tenuous, highly publicized possible 51 percent purchase of NBC Universal, according to the Wrap. But, Sharon Waxman reports on the site, there is a deal in principle.
But, folks there’s plenty standing in the way:
- The L.A. Times reports that Vivendi, the French company with a 20 percent stake in NBC, has veto power over any change in majority control and, without any immediate and obvious prospects left on which to spend proceeds from their cut of the deal with Comcast, may choose to hold on to its cut. The West Coast Times also reports that the company has thus far kept quiet about its board’s decision on whether to move or stay.
- Bloomberg reports that it appears Comcast leadership would, if the purchase happened, likely keep NBC’s executive team in place, including the embattled CEO Jeff Zucker, who in his reign has seen the channel go from first to fourth in national ratings and is increasingly getting heat from within the organization.
- Tactics or not, Media Memo reports that Comcast competitor and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes compared this possible deal with the failed merger between his company and AOL in the 1990s.
- Silicon Alley Insider reports that NBC staffers had concerns about seeing their health care coverage change and even worsen in comprehension if the purchase were to happen, though Comcast employees responded quickly in praising their coverage. Such a small flurry of concern does well to exemplify how much would have to go into a deal like this.
- While many of these players have since been dismissed, Forbes last week reported the existence of other potential suitors to unload NBC from its owner General Electric. H/T Philly Tech News
Even in the still very uncertain reality that this high-profile purchase were to occur, a simple majority stake by Comcast would hardly offer even the hint that NBC’s decidedly 67th ward-branded programming would take on any Philadelphia tone.
But, it could, of course, be noted that in recent years NBC has shifted the locations of its Web divisions and some MSNBC functions from Manhattan to New Jersey. While other realities were at play, the dramatic difference in real estate cost between the two surely wasn’t ignored. Philadelphia could prove an even cheaper, yet higher-profile home than the Garden State, with all the other benefits of a major city in between the government and financial capitals of the country, for any such low-profile administrative or other departments.
After the jump, more Comcast-NBC fantasizing, a large Internet security rollout and, yeesh, at least 10 other Comcast stories of note.
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