by Joe Gillis, Dec 3 2009 // 12:00 PM
Comcast and General Electric announced early today they have made an agreement to combine GE’s NBC Universal with Comcast’s entertainment assets. The new company will be 51% owned, and managed, by Comcast. GE will have 49%. Jeff Zucker, president of NBC U, will become CEO of the new company.
According to the trade, the agreement “creates a new powerhouse with enormous reach in sports and entertainment programming.” It also will allow “GE to contribute NBC U’s businesses valued at $30 billion, including broadcast and cable television, filmed entertainment and theme parks.”
As part of the agreement, Comcast will contribute $6.5 Billion in cash, along with its own cable networks including E!, Versus and the Golf Channel, its 10 regional sports networks, and certain digital media properties collectively valued at $7.25 Billion.
The cable networks, including NBC’s USA, Bravo, Syfy, CNBC and MSNBC, will account for 80% of the new, combined company’s cash flow — which is a good thing. Comcast will create a new division called Comcast Entertainment Group to control its interest in the new venture. Okay, that’s all well and good, but how does the Sheinhardt Wig Company figure in all of this?
Posted in: Deals and Dealmaking · NBC · News · Universal Pictures
Tagged: Business, Comcast, Deals, Merger, NBCU, Universal
by Matt Raub, Sep 9 2009 // 4:30 PM
Ever since the news first came through about Disney and Marvel joining, everybody and their mother came out of the woodwork with their ideas for Disney/Marvel mash up ideas. Such bad ideas as Finding Namor, HERB-E, Casper the Friendliest Ghostrider, and All Dogs go to Asgard were thrown into the mix, but no one had any thoughts on Disney working on a real-life Marvel property.
It looks like that time has come, as Pixar is interested in taking on one of Marvel’s first superheroes, Ant-Man. According to Entertainment Weekly, “Marvel has thousands of characters to feed Disney’s film, TV, and animation business (Pixar is said to already be eyeballing an Ant-Man movie). As Iron Man proved, they don’t need to be iconic to become blockbusters.”
Last we heard, the Ant-Man property was already in the works for a feature film, to be helmed by Shaun of the Dead team Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost with a script cowritten by BBC comedian Joe Cornish. Though the ilk of the writer/directors was that of comedy, the team insisted that the film was to be purely action based. Back in March of 2008, the film reportedly went on hold, and hadn’t been heard from since.
With Pixar taking on the film, you can believe that the story won’t be about Eric O’Grady, also known as The Irredeemable Ant-Man. Now that Disney has their mitts on the project, the story will presumably take more of a family friendly tone, which could be a bad thing or a good thing (these are the same people that brought us The Incredibles). No word yet on details of the film, if the original script will still stand, or if Wright and his team will be staying on the project.
Posted in: Action · Animation · Comics · Deals and Dealmaking · Disney · Kids · Marvel · Movies · News · Pixar · Rumor · Sci-Fi
Tagged: Ant-Man, Disney, Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, Marvel, Merger, Pixar, Simon Pegg