Weather Bidding Heats Up
by Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News, 3/10/2008
The setting: The much anticipated auction for The Weather Channel
The background: Landmark Communications, parent of Weather, hired J.P. Morgan and Lehman Brothers in January to explore strategic opportunities. The network and its associated Web site, weather.com, were expected to fetch a price as high as $5 billion.
The latest: Preliminary bids for The Weather Channel are expected to come in this week (March 9), according to a report by Reuters last week. Reuters said at least 20 separate parties have expressed interest in seeing the cable network's books.
The bidders: Bidders for the network are expected to be the usual suspects —Time Warner Inc., Comcast, CBS and NBC Universal.
The Handicapper: While any of the expected bidders could end up with the property, NBC Universal could want it more. Comcast has the financial muscle to do a deal of that size, but Wall Street typically reacts unfavorably to a cable company spending money.
Time Warner may be in the same boat. CBS could be another logical choice, but most analysts expect any of its near-term acquisitions to be in the new media and outdoor advertising space. That leaves NBC Universal, which has already shown an appetite for cable networks — it agreed to buy Oxygen Media last year for $875 million.
