Comcast will acquire control of 100% of NBCUniversal, buying General Electric’s 49% stake in the company for $16.7 billion. Comcast will also acquire the property that GE has at 30 Rockefeller Plaza and at CNBC’s headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey for an additional $1.4 billion.
By acquiring the property, it is likely that the GE logo that has adorned the top of 30 Rockefeller Plaza since 1988 will be replaced. Before being called the GE Building, it was known as the RCA building. According to CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla, Comcast will be getting the naming rights to the building in the deal.
“The management team at GE has been has been a wonderful partner during the past two years and their support has been very valuable,” said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts in a statement. “Our decision to acquire GE’s ownership is driven by our sense of optimism for the future prospects of NBCUniversal and our desire to capture future value that we hope to create for our shareholders.”
Comcast was expected to acquire full control of NBCU eventually, though the process was originally slated to begin in 2014. Now it appears the deal will be done in March.