Comcast to Buy Out GE’s Stake in NBC for $16.7 Billion

Comcast, the largest U.S. cable company, will buy out General Electric’s ownership of NBC Universal for $16.7 billion, following through on the cable company’s purchase of a controlling stake two years ago.

The deal also involves buying the properties used by NBC Universal at 30 Rock building and CNBC’s headquarters for $1.4 billion, Comcast said. The enterprise value of NBC Universal is now $39.1 billion, up from $37.5 billion when Comcast bought the stake in 2011. Comcast bought 51 percent of NBC on Jan. 29 of that year for $13.8 billion in cash and assets. Since then, the company has benefited from improving ratings among 18- to 49-year-olds at the broadcast network and better-than-expected ad revenue from the Olympics. For GE, the deal lets it turn an asset that didn’t fit with its business into a source of cash. “This is an attractive price for us and it gives GE a lot of cash,” Comcast Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts said. “We like the NBC Universal business.” The sale will result in a pretax gain of about $1 billion for GE. Those gains will be offset by increased restructuring costs this year, GE said.