Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

Special to the Director's Cut By Deborah Yao, AP Business Writer PHILADELPHIA -- General Electric Co. has reached an agreement to buy the 20 percent stake in NBC Universal held by French media conglomerate Vivendi SA, The Associated Press has learned. The agreement would pave the way for GE to sell control of the TV and movie company to Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable TV provider. That deal, which would make Philadelphia-based Comcast one of the nation's largest entertainment companies, is valued at about $30 billion. An understanding between GE and Vivendi has been reached but has yet to be formalized, according to a person with knowledge of the talks who requested anonymity because the talks were private. The Wall Street Journal reported that GE would pay $5.8 billion for the stake. -- Source: The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA -- Shares of Comcast Corp. are diving after reports surfaced that the nation's largest cable TV provider is in talks to purchase a stake in NBC Universal. Comcast has called some of the reports inaccurate but stopped short of denying that talks were held. General Electric Co. owns 80 percent of NBC Universal, which includes several cable channels plus the NBC and Telemundo networks, the Universal Pictures movie studio and a chain of theme parks. The other 20 percent is owned by the French media conglomerate Vivendi SA. Shares of Philadelphia-based Comcast were down $1.17, or 7 percent, to $15.71 in morning trading Thursday. GE fell 26 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $16.16. Source: The Associated Press