Media Titans

Comcast Makes Play for NBC-Universal?

After summer of weak box offices, GE may be selling.

This will throw a wrench into the Keith Olbermann-Bill O'Reilly cable news feud: Comcast, the enormous cable provider, is reportedly in talks to buy NBC-Universal from General Electric. Bankers for both sides worked through details in a meeting Tuesday, reports The Wrap. Though GE denies it, rumors have been circulating for months that the mega-corporation might be selling the entertainment unit, and in recent weeks, minority shareholder Vivendi has been gearing up to sell its 20 percent share of the company in an IPO. NBC-Universal looks like a much sweeter deal for Comcast these days, because it's lost about $20 billion in value (from $55 billion to $35 billion) in just a year. That's partly because Universal had a bad summer, as several movies with big-name stars—Funny People, Bruno, Land of the Lost—failed to meet box-office expectations. UPDATE: Comcast says there's no deal.