Following the General Electric (GE) - Comcast (CMCSA, CMCSK) agreement regarding NBC Universal, Vivendi (VIV) said that it will sell its 20% stake in NBC Universal to General Electric and will not be a shareholder in the new entity resulting from the joint venture between NBC Universal and Comcast content assets. The 20% stake is valued at US$5.8 billion.
Vivendi said that Vivendi will sell 7.66% of NBC Universal to GE for US$2 billion, if the GE - Comcast transaction is not completed by September 2010. The remainder of the stake, or 12.34%, will be sold for US$3.8 billion to GE upon completion of the GE - Comcast transaction. Vivendi will continue to receive quarterly dividends from NBC Universal between now and the completion of the GE - Comcast transaction. GE has agreed to make transaction payments to Vivendi to the extent that NBC Universal's 2010 dividend payments to Vivendi are less than $268 million. If the GE - Comcast transaction were not completed, Vivendi would launchan accelerated initial public offering of its remaining 12.34% of NBC Universal.
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