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One Accurate Prediction: NBC U Buys Weather Channel

weatherchannel.jpgHope you enjoyed your holiday weekend. Some (not) poor lawyers, bankers and other deal types had to spend part of it sewing up NBC U's acquisition of The Weather Channel from Landmark Communications. Purchase price wasn't disclosed, but had been previously estimated in the $3.5 billion range.

NBC is buying the cable channel and web property in conjunction with Bain and Blackstone, who kicked in a reported $1.8 billion. It will be operated as a separate entity, so it's unclear what that means in terms of opportunities NBC will have to cross-sell with its existing portfolio. But NBC's happy to position it as a wholly owned sub, noting that Weather.com + NBC's web portfolio would "have a total unduplicated reach of nearly 70 million visitors per month, ranking No. 7 against all U.S.-based Internet properties".

Sometime SAI contributor Howard Lindzon offers this breakdown of the deal, via an imaginary NBC U press release:

“We all know that we overpaid, but this is just as much a bet on improving stock market conditions as it is a $3.5 billion dollar blunder. Once stock market conditions improve, we will pawn this off as an IPO on Global stock putz’s (maybe even package it with iVillage. In the meantime, we will lever this bitch to the moon and start buying more adwords with the word BAROMETER.’

See Also: NBC U + Weather.com = Top 10 Internet Company

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