According to CNBC’s David Faber, the deal for Comcast to buy a majority stake in NBC Universal is done. It moved quickly after General Electric came to an agreement Monday to buy Vivendi’s 20% share in the company.
A full announcement is expected on Thursday.
While Comcast would eventually gain most or all of NBC within a certain time period, for the time being, Comcast would own 51% of NBCU with GE owning the rest.
This would not only make Comcast one of the largest entertainment companies in the world, the combination of Comcast’s sports networks including Versus, Golf Channel, the Comcast regional SportsNet channels and NBC Sports could give the Disney-owned ESPN a run for its money, but that is looking in the distant future.
In the near future, it’s expected that the deal will take about a year to close. Todd Shields and Christopher Stern of Bloomberg speculate that the Obama Administration will scrutinize the deal quite closely.
It’s a story that we’ll be keeping a close eye as well.
But to sum up again, Comcast has just about completed the deal to purchase 51% of NBC Universal.
