Comcast Corp to buy rest of NBC Universal from General Electronics in $16.7 bn deal
in after hours trading, Comcast will also gain full control of the floors NBC uses at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City and CNBC's headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, for about $1.4 billion.
Comcast said it would fund the deal with $11.4 billion of cash on hand, $4 billion in senior unsecured notes to be issued to GE, $2 billion in credit facility borrowings and the issuance of $725 million in subsidiary preferred stock to GE.
"Given that media stocks have gone up quite a bit, it's a very attractive price, a fair price because we had a formula buyout," Roberts, who is also chairman of the company, said in an interview with Reuters.
Separately, Comcast said it would increase its dividend by 20 percent and it would buy back $2 billion in stock this year. GE also said it would accelerate its own share buy-back program to $10 billion this year.
"People may have their own opinions on whether it's good or bad strategically, but it doesn't leave any unanswered questions financially. For a transaction of this nature and this size, it's a relatively low-risk structure," Brean Capital analyst Todd Mitchell said.
Since reaching the deal to sell its majority stake in NBC Universal, GE officials have made clear they eventually planned to exit the entertainment business entirely. So the moves announced on Tuesday culminate a long-planned exit from the entertainment business.
Comcast shares rose to $41.75 after the market close from $38.97 in regular trading.
LONG-HELD AMBITIONS
Comcast turned its attention to NBC
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