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NBC Universal To Buy The Weather Channel

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The Associated Press

Published: July 7, 2008

NEW YORK - NEW YORK - NBC Universal and two partners said Sunday they have reached a deal to buy The Weather Channel from Landmark Communications, ending a drawn-out process that had attracted interest from several major media companies.

Financial terms weren't disclosed, but a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity said the purchase price was $3.5 billion in cash. NBC was joined in the deal by private equity firms The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital.

In addition to The Weather Channel, which is seen by 97 percent of U.S. cable subscribers, the deal includes several related assets, such as weather services for newspapers and radio stations, and the widely used Web site Weather.com.

NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co., became the sole bidder for The Weather Channel last month after Time Warner dropped out. CBS Corp. and cable industry leader Comcast Corp. also had expressed interest early.

NBC has a digital weather and news service - NBC Weather Plus - that it launched in 2004 and would fit with The Weather Channel. NBC Weather Plus is owned by NBC and its affiliated TV stations, and is seen on digital cable services and digital subchannels operated by NBC stations.

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