Weather Channel Deal

NBC Universal,a division of General Electric(GE),is acquiring The Weather Channel from Landmark Communications for 3.5 billion dollars.The Blackstone Group(BX) and Bain Capital are also participating in the acquisition.Jeff Zucker,CEO of NBC-U,says that they are a news and information company.The cable portfolio is the backbone of who they are.NBC-U owns MSNBC,CNBC,Bravo,USA Network,Oxygen and Sci-Fi.The digital unit of The Weather Channel,weather.com,fits in NBC-U with 40 million unique monthly visitors.The deal,which is expected to close by the end of 2008,is leapfrogging NBC-U into whole new areas,Mr.Zucker maintains.They get a great strategic asset at a very fair price.