Birth of a new media monster -- Vivendi/GE/NBC/Universal Studios

[eablair3]

More media conglomeration. I thought things were changing. Will we see members of Congress speak out about this? I know Bush will take no action to stop it.

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Birth of a new media monster

Vivendi and GE in exclusive talks on $13bn merger

David Teather in New York
Wednesday September 3, 2003
The Guardian

Vivendi Universal yesterday entered exclusive talks with General Electric, the parent company of American television network NBC, to merge the companies' media assets and potentially create a new super power in the industry.

The agreement puts Vivendi into the home stretch of a sale that has attracted enormous attention over the summer. The group would be the sixth biggest media company in the world, ranked by sales.

The fate of Vivendi Universal Entertainment, which houses the Universal movie studio, theme parks, TV production and cable channels, was hotly contested and narrowed to two bidders: GE and a consortium put together by Edgar Bronfman Jr, the former Seagram boss who sold the Universal businesses to Vivendi in 2000.

snip

http://media.guardian.co.uk/vivendi/story/0,11919,1034604,00.html


and also here:

NBC in Tentative Deal for Universal
Vivendi gives the GE unit a chance to become a media powerhouse with the sort of strategic advantages enjoyed by Viacom and Disney.

By Richard Verrier, Meg James and Sallie Hofmeister, Times Staff Writers


In a move that could further consolidate a media landscape already dominated by a handful of titans, Vivendi Universal and General Electric Co.'s NBC entered into negotiations Tuesday to create a multibillion-dollar entertainment powerhouse.

Vivendi's board of directors met in Paris on Tuesday and agreed to sign a nonbinding letter of intent to merge NBC's broadcast network and cable channels with Universal's venerable movie studio, theme parks and TV group. The new venture, tentatively dubbed NBC Universal, would overnight become the world's eighth-largest media company based on revenue and boast strategic advantages similar to those enjoyed by Viacom Inc. and Walt Disney Co. — the owners of CBS and ABC, respectively.

snip

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-vivendi3sep03,1,494424.story?coll=la-home-headlines

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Let's see now, ... General Electric, a defense contractor will own NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Universal Studios, as well as ties to the Washington Post and Newsweek Magazine. http://www.cjr.org/owners/ge.asp http://www.cjr.org/owners/vivendi.asp

Viacom owns CBS, Paramount Studios, Simon & Schuster, iirc, among many others http://www.cjr.org/owners/viacom.asp That's quite a list of TV and radio stations/channels that Viacom owns across the country.

Disney owns ABC, ESPN, A&E, History Channel, and many many other media outlets including many TV and radio stations. http://www.cjr.org/owners/disney.asp

AOL/Time Warner owns AOL, Time Magazine, Warner Bros Studios, CNN, CNN Headline News, etc. http://www.cjr.org/owners/aoltimewarner.asp


http://www.cjr.org/owners/

[punpirate]

1. GE probably planned this around 2000....

Vivendi has had little luck in finding European buyers (this search of theirs for a buyer began several months back), and certainly, GE believes that it's just poor management which has brought Vivendi to its current state of affairs.

GE probably thinks it will be able to expand its territory and sphere of influence well into Europe by this move. And, while it's described as a merger, GE will be calling the shots.

Vivendi wasn't succeeding, in part because it expected to make tons of money pushing American content on a Europe which was only selectively interested in it.

GE will bankroll this out of their commercial finance groups; my hope then is that they destroy their solvency on this deal. Their commercial lending divisions have become leaders in the predatory lending area, so I hope this deal ruins their capacity for commercial lending, and maybe, just maybe, one conglomerate in this country will recognize the idiocy of reach exceeding grasp.

Cheers.