Comcast Corp. will pay $16.7 billion for the 49% of NBCUniversal it doesn’t already own. The seller is General Electric Co., which sold 51% of NBCUniversal to Comcast in 2011,
the
Philadelphia Inquirer
reported.
The deal gives family-controlled Comcast full ownership of NBCUniversal much sooner than expected,
the
Wall Street Journal
noted.
Comcast and GE were expected to operate the company as a joint venture until at least mid-2014, and Comcast had the option of continuing the joint venture through 2018, the
Inquirer
article said.
Comcast is also buying the NBC studios and offices at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan and the CNBC headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. for $1.4 billion, the
Inquirer
reported.
Comcast also announced that it has increased its per-share dividend by 20% to 78 cents a year and would repurchase $2 billion of Comcast stock this year, the
Inquirer
article said. (Sources:
Philadelphia Inquirer,
Feb. 13, 2013;
Wall Street Journal,
Feb. 13, 2013.)
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