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G.E pact with Vivendi clears way for sale of NBC
General Electric has reached a tentative agreement to buy Vivendi's 20 percent stake in NBC Universal for about $5.8 billion, helping clear the path to a sale of the television and movie company to Comcast, people briefed on the matter told DealBook.
But much remains to be negotiated, these people warned. The Vivendi agreement values NBC Universal at $29 billion, less than the $30 billion or so that G.E. and Comcast had agreed to last month.
Harmonizing the two values, as in so much of the talks over NBC Universal, may take days to do. But people briefed on the matter said the companies are aiming to announce a completed deal by Thursday.
If a deal is finalized, it would reshape the entertainment industry, fulfilling Comcast's long-held dream of becoming a content developer as well as a transmitter and end G.E.'s decades-long association with now-struggling NBC.