Comcast to Buy General Electric's 49% Stake in NBCUniversal

Comcast will acquire the entire 49% stake in the NBCUniversal joint venture held by General Electric, Comcast announced today.

Comcast will pay GE approximately $16.7 billion for its common equity stake, and NBCUniversal will buy the properties NBCUniversal uses at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City and the CNBC headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., for $1.4 billion.

The transactions will be funded with $11.4 billion of cash on hand, and the company will issue $4.0 billion of subsidiary senior unsecured notes and $725 million of subsidiary preferred stock to GE. It will also borrow $2.0 billion.

"We believe the terms of the transaction are attractive and have planned for this event by taking a number of financial steps to prepare our balance sheet," said Comcast chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts in the company's statement.

Comcast said it expects the transaction to close by the end of the first quarter of 2013.

The article Comcast to Buy General Electric's 49% Stake in NBCUniversal originally appeared on Fool.com.

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