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GE’s chairman is again trying to squelch persistent rumors that General Electric plans to unload NBC Universal after the summer Olympics.
In a written message aimed at investors, Jeffrey R. Immelt says that a sale “doesn’t make sense” and is not in the offing.
Speculation about GE dumping the division has been strong since an October article in the Financial Times cited anonymous sources saying that NBC may go up for sale predicated on its numbers during the Olympics.
Though a somewhat lackluster prime time schedule is what many people most associate with NBC Universal, the unit has actually posted five straight quarters of growth, according to the New York Times, and finished 2007 with $3.7 billion in profit.
NBC’s cable division, which includes CNBC, USA and Bravo, is highly profitable and the film division recorded its best year ever after releasing The Bourne Ultimatum, Knocked Up and American Gangster.
All sectors of the media business will suffer from the weakened economy in 2008 and 2009, with a slump in local advertising particularly hurting newspapers and local TV, according to a new projection from Goldman Sachs.
Broadcast nets will experience…
The New York Times is shuttering its International Herald Tribune site; NYTimes.com will soon host the international news normally reserved for its sister website.
The move is not about cost savings, but rather about growth, NYTimes.com general manager Vivian Schiller…
Unilever’s Vaseline set forth on an unusual research project in a small town in Alaska. Setting up a storefront, the company began giving away free bottles of lotion and asking recipients to name the person who had recommended they come…
Meet the Press, the show hosted by Tim Russert for 17 years before his death last June, is beginning to slip in ratings.
Last month, CBS’s Face the Nation pulled ahead of Meet the Press for the first time in two…
Bloggers collectively create nearly one million blog posts each day, and half of bloggers believe blogs will be a primary source of news and entertainment in the next five years, according to Technorati’s 2008 State of the Blogosphere Report, MarketingCharts writes.…
Wal-Mart and Costco reported same-store gains in September, with sales rising 2.4% and 9% respectively. Sales at Target stores open at least a year fell 3%, writes Retailer Daily.
Below, fiscal results from the discount retail giants:
Sales of food and…
