Is NBC For Sale?

Could global industrial giant General Electric be looking to sell its entertainment unit NBC Universal? According to information from the Financial Times and 24/7 Wall St. the answer could be “yes” (see article from 24/7 Wall St.). It has been argued that NBC was never a good fit with GE’s industrial focus and that its lower performance has hurt the overall performance of GE. However, no decision will be made until after the 2008 Beijing Olympics (which makes sense considering NBC has the global rights to televise the quadrennial event). We were curious as to which companies might make a bid for NBC should it go up for sale. Since Time Warner and Vivendi are two of the largest media companies in the world, we decided to create IntellectSpace Knowledge Maps to determine if they had any corporate ties to GE should they be interested in acquiring NBC.

In the Knowledge Map of GE and Time Warner, the strongest ties are through Harvard University, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. GE Director James Cash and Time Warner Director Robert Clark are both former Professors at Harvard. Cash was on the faculty from 1976-2003 and was Chairman of the MBA program. Clark was on the faculty at Harvard Law School from 1978-2003 and has been a Distinguished Professor since 2003. If Cash and Clark do not already know each other, then it is likely they have overlapping contacts at Harvard.

Another tie is through the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where GE Director Douglas Warner and Time Warner Director Deborah Wright are both Members of the Board of Managers, with Warner currently serving as Chairman of the Board.

A final connection illustrated on this Knowledge Map involves Rochelle Lazarus, Director at GE, and Richard Parsons, Chairman/CEO of Time Warner, both of whom are currently Trustees at the American Museum of Natural History.

With the Knowledge Map of GE's ties to Vivendi, the strongest ties are through NBC Universal itself and JPMorgan Chase. GE Director Robert Wright and Vivendi Director Jean-Rene Fourtou can be connected through NBC Universal. Wright was President/CEO of NBC from 1986-2003 and Chairman/CEO of NBC Universal from 2004-2007, where he worked alongside Fourtou who is also a Director at NBC Universal.

Another noteworthy connection is through JPMorgan and involves Douglas Warner (Director at GE) and Edgar Bronfman (former Director at Vivendi). Warner was Chairman/CEO of JPMorgan from 1995-2000 while Bronfman is currently a Member of the National Advisory Board. While neither man worked with one another, it is likely that both retain strong contacts with their former employers that could prove beneficial should any negotiations take place.

While it is not guaranteed that GE will sell NBC, if such a deal occurs both Time Warner and Vivendi would have to be considered potential buyers and the evidence demonstrated in these Knowledge Maps indicate that they each have enough corporate ties with GE to start initial negotiations.

Click here for an interactive version of these IntellectSpace Knowledge Maps (Internet Explorer browsers only):

GE - Time Warner: http://nv.intellectspace.com/ispace/GuestMonitor.aspx?id=5ec2c80f-18c0-4440-acaf-02d9031cdff8

GE - Vivendi: http://nv.intellectspace.com/ispace/GuestMonitor.aspx?id=0c740b14-9f97-40ff-93a4-985c3686aba8

(Note: the information contained and presented in Knowledge Maps is public information from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America)

Comments

[Chris W]

I just made a post about this the other day on The Media Tap http://www.themediatap.com/2007/10/11/apparently-nbc-isnt-doing-too-well-these-days-either/

The maps you provide above make things so much clearer about what is driving these decisions and many of the ties involved. We will see what happens after the Beijing Olympics.