Rumours started in January of this year saying www.weather.com, The Weather Channel (cable TV networks) and other business units were up for sale. The family that owns Norfolk, Virginia based Landmark Communications admitted they were exploring a sale of the company's businesses, including www.weather.com.
Landmark Communications acknowledged $1.75 billion in sales in 2006 and employs about 12,000. It is parent company to nine daily papers, including The Roanoke Times in Virginia and The News & Record of Greensboro, North Carolina, and more than 100 non-daily newspapers and specialty publications. In addition to The Weather Channel and its web site, Landmark owns television stations in Las Vegas and Nashville, Tennessee, and Norfolk-based Dominion Enterprises, a national chain of classified advertising publications.
The New York Times reported last week that The Weather Channel and related businesses could fetch more than $5 billion. Earlier rumours from unidentified people briefed on the matter are that the sale is attracting interest from several parties, including General Electric's NBC Universal, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and US cable TV company Comcast Corp.
The Weather Channel's web site, www.weather.com, had more than 32 million unique users in November 2007 and ranks as the nation's 18th-largest media site by traffic, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Debora J. Wilson, The Weather Channel's chief executive, told The New York Times in June 2008: 'Every media conglomeration has approached Landmark, and there's never been a yes. We actually think that we're stronger being independent.”
The sale will also include Weather Services International, which provides weather data and services to local television stations. Additionally, the sale covers Enterprise Electronics Corporation, a manufacturer of meteorological radar. Landmark is going to sell their interest in Pelmorex, a Canadian weather information company which operates the broadcasting license for The Weather Network and its French sister station, MétéoMédia.
General Electric's NBC Universal, along with New York City based Blackstone Group LP, and Boston based Bain Capital LLC are rumored to have the inside track for completing the sale. This week those anonymous crystal ball gazers briefed on this high finance matter say the two sides have spent the last three weeks finalizing the fine points of the buying agreement.
Looks like somebody else is going to be making money from talking about and writing about the weather. X |