Comcast's Rivals For NBC

Could Time Warner, Disney, Liberty Media, or a private equity firm enter a bidding war for NBC Universal? Hessel thinks Liberty Media is a likely suitor. In May, Liberty's John Malone said that the future of media will involve aggregators of content relying on subscription sales, not advertising, to generate profits. To that end, he could seek to buy NBC and turn it into a cable network, or use Universal's movie library to increase Starz's offerings. Malone's publicly held Liberty Media Entertainment has a market capitalization of $16 billion and just $2 billion in debt, and his Liberty Media Interactive has a market value of $6.8 billion and $7 billion in debt, suggesting that Malone has the financial flexibility to chase big deals. Also, keep an eye on Providence Equity, Thomas H. Lee and Bain Capital.