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Comcast to buy GE’s 49% stake in NBCUniversal

Feb. 13, 2013 - 20:32 By Korea Herald
Combination photos of the Comcast Center (left) in Philadelphia and the Universal Studios theme park in Los Angeles. (AP-Yonhap News)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Comcast said Tuesday that it’s buying the rest of NBCUniversal from General Electric for $16.7 billion, doing so several years early as the company takes advantage of low borrowing costs and what CEO Brian Roberts called a “very attractive price.”

At the same time, Comcast Corp. raised its annual dividend 20 percent to 78 cents per share and vowed to buy back $2 billion in shares this year. It is also buying NBCUniversal’s headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York and the CNBC headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, for another $1.4 billion.

Investors thought the move was good for both companies ― GE because it got cash for its stake earlier than expected and Comcast because it is seen to be a good use of its cash.

Comcast shares jumped $3.09, or 7.9 percent, to $42.06 in after-hours trading. GE shares rose 77 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $23.35.

Comcast had bought a 51 percent stake in the company that owns the NBC broadcast network, the movie studio Universal Pictures and pay TV networks such as USA, CNBC, Bravo and SyFy in January 2011. General Electric Co. had the remaining 49 percent. Comcast had planned to take a larger stake in it over seven years, paying for it from operating cash.