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CNN Live At Daybreak
GE, Vivendi Have Escalated Merger Talks
Aired August 20, 2003 - 06:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now, though, for a little business buzz. NBC may soon add another sibling to its TV family.
Let's head live to the Nasdaq site in New York and Joya Dass.
So, what's it going to be this time?
JOYA DASS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, boy, this is a soap opera, huh? Well according to -- according to "The Wall Street Journal" this morning, the latest bit of news on the Vivendi Universal and entertainment assets is this that GE has actually intensified its talks with Vivendi to actually buy these assets. The price tag $14 billion is what Vivendi wants. And ultimately the goal here is, of course, to join the likes of CNBC and NBC, all of which are owned by GE, with Universal's -- with Universal Studios, as well as the USA Networks, which are all assets, of course, owned by Vivendi.
Judgment day is next Tuesday because Vivendi's board is going to meet then. And in the next couple of days, if both sides seem to reach some kind of an agreement here, it looks like Vivendi's board could actually be recommending that they go ahead and go into exclusive talks with GE.
Now there is someone else who is weighing in on this situation, that's Mel Karmazin who is the President of Viacom. And he thinks that GE and Vivendi's entertainment assets are probably going to reach an agreement, because he's only interested if they are only willing to sell the cable operations to him at the end of the day.
But that doesn't mean that you know this is all a done deal, because don't forget there are some other people who are also looking to buy up these entertainment assets, including Edgar Bronfman Jr. who is the former CEO of Seagrams. He's leading an investor group with some interest here. And then there's also Liberty Media. So I don't think we've heard the last of this one yet.
COSTELLO: Wow, it is a soap opera.
Quick look at the futures.
DASS: Well the futures are actually looking flat this morning because we got some disappointing results from the PC maker Hewlett- Packard last night. So I bet you that's probably going to be the ruling factor when we're looking at some of the tech stocks today.
COSTELLO: All right. Joya Dass, we'll get back to you in the next half hour, many thanks. Live from the Nasdaq site in New York. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 20, 2003 - 06:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now, though, for a little business buzz. NBC may soon add another sibling to its TV family.
Let's head live to the Nasdaq site in New York and Joya Dass.
So, what's it going to be this time?
JOYA DASS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, boy, this is a soap opera, huh? Well according to -- according to "The Wall Street Journal" this morning, the latest bit of news on the Vivendi Universal and entertainment assets is this that GE has actually intensified its talks with Vivendi to actually buy these assets. The price tag $14 billion is what Vivendi wants. And ultimately the goal here is, of course, to join the likes of CNBC and NBC, all of which are owned by GE, with Universal's -- with Universal Studios, as well as the USA Networks, which are all assets, of course, owned by Vivendi.
Judgment day is next Tuesday because Vivendi's board is going to meet then. And in the next couple of days, if both sides seem to reach some kind of an agreement here, it looks like Vivendi's board could actually be recommending that they go ahead and go into exclusive talks with GE.
Now there is someone else who is weighing in on this situation, that's Mel Karmazin who is the President of Viacom. And he thinks that GE and Vivendi's entertainment assets are probably going to reach an agreement, because he's only interested if they are only willing to sell the cable operations to him at the end of the day.
But that doesn't mean that you know this is all a done deal, because don't forget there are some other people who are also looking to buy up these entertainment assets, including Edgar Bronfman Jr. who is the former CEO of Seagrams. He's leading an investor group with some interest here. And then there's also Liberty Media. So I don't think we've heard the last of this one yet.
COSTELLO: Wow, it is a soap opera.
Quick look at the futures.
DASS: Well the futures are actually looking flat this morning because we got some disappointing results from the PC maker Hewlett- Packard last night. So I bet you that's probably going to be the ruling factor when we're looking at some of the tech stocks today.
COSTELLO: All right. Joya Dass, we'll get back to you in the next half hour, many thanks. Live from the Nasdaq site in New York. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
