NBC Universal Set To Buy The Weather Channel
NBC Universal announced on Sunday that they plan to finalize a deal soon to buy The Weather Channel from Landmark Communications Inc. A source close to the matter said the purchase price was $3.5 billion.
Norfolk, Va.-based Landmark put The Weather Channel up for sale in January along with its other businesses, which include The Virginian-Pilot and eight other daily newspapers. No announcement has yet been made about the newspaper sales, which are continuing on a separate track.
Other media firms Time Warner Inc., CBS Corp., and cable industry leader Comcast Corp. had all expressed interest earlier.
NBC entered the deal alongside private equity firms The Blackstone Group LP and Bain Capital LLC.
The deal also gives NBC and its partners access to several related assets such as weather services for newspapers and radio stations and the widely used Web site Weather.com.
NBC, who already owns and operates a digital weather service called NBC Weather Plus, said in a statement that The Weather Channel would be operated as a separate entity out of its base in Atlanta. NBC Weather plus can currently be seen on digital cable services and digital subchannels operated by NBC stations. The Weather Channel is available to 97 percent of U.S. cable subscribers.
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., GE Commercial Finance, GSO Capital Partners and Sankaty Advisors LLC will provide debt financing for the transaction.
The Weather Channel was launched in 1982, and can be seen by 97 percent of U.S. cable subscribers. Its Web site has about 37 million monthly unique visitors, putting it in the top 15 Web sites, according to the company.
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