CEO of NBC Universal, Jeff Zucker emailed employees in September regarding a possible sale of the company to Comcast. General Electric owns 80% of NBC while 20% is owned by Vivendi. In late September the buzz began about Comcast purchasing the media giant. CNBC reported that "the negotiations between Comcast and the entertainment company involved spinning off the unit into a new company, with Comcast taking 51 percent economic control of the company." GE would retain its 49% stake in the company. According to DailyFinance.com, Comcast provides service to 1/4 of American homes in 39 states. NBC consists of the television network, Universal Studios, MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, Telemundo, the Weather Channel, Hulu.com, and more.
What will this merger do to independent media and programming diversity? According to Josh Silver of the Huffington Post, if the two merge, Comcast will then own a quarter of all cable channels. What will the repercussions of this vertical integration be?
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