On Sunday, NBC Universal announced that they were about to have a buyout deal with Landmark Communications Inc. for their Weather Channel. The announcement ended a lengthy process that tempted interest in many big media businesses.
There are no words about financial terms yet, but someone “issue-familiar” told on anonymous basis that $3.5 billion in cash was the purchase price. The private equity firms Bain Capital LLC. and The Blackstone group also joined NBC in that deal.
Besides Weather Channel, many other related assets like weather services for radio stations and newspapers and a well-known weather Web site Weather.com have also been included in the deal. It is worth mentioning that more than 97 percent U.S. cable subscribers can watch The Weather Channel.
After the departure of Time Warner Inc. during the last month, NBC Universal was the sole bidder for the Channel. Comcast Corp., which is considered the cable industry leader, had also shown interest in the Channel before.
General Electric Co.’s unit NBC Universal also operates NBC Weather Plus that was started during 2004 might have been made a logical robust with the weather The Weather Channel. NBC owns that NBC Weather Plus and other associated T.V. channels .It can be watched on NBC operated digital sub-channels and digital cable services.
In a joint statement NBC and Landmark told they would operate The Weather Channel as an isolated unit out of its base in Atlanta. According to them the transaction will be closed by the end of this year.
The debt financing for that transaction will be provided by the Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., GSO Capital Partners, Sankaty Advisors LLC and GE Commercial Finance.
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