The New York Times’ Dealbreaker blog has the latest scoop on Comcast’s much-discussed potential purchase of NBC Universal. According to DB, GE has reached a tentative agreement to buy up Vivendi’s 20% stake in the struggling Peacock Network, which is estimated to be worth $5.8 billion. The movie/TV company overall is valued at around $29 billion, which is slightly less than the $30B that GE and Comcast agreed to last month.
Deadline Hollywood Daily proprietor Nikki Finke, though, says that French firm Vivendi has had its American counterpart “by the balls” after not only wielding its option to hold an initial public offering for its stake rather than sell it back to GE, but then even compelling GE CEO Jeff Imelt to fly to Paris last week and beg Vivendi to come to a reasonable agreement.
Regardless, Comcast looks like the winner out of all this, having been cleared to move forward with its 51% takeover of NBCU and realize its goal of becoming a content developer and transmitter.