About one month after first announcing the deal, General Electric Co.'s NBC television unit completed its $1.25 billion acquisition of the Bravo cable network from Cablevision Systems Corp., company officials said.
Under terms of the deal, NBC exchanged 53.2 million shares of Cablevision class-A common stock, worth about $672 million, which were previously held by NBC on a fully converted basis. The remaining $328 million was paid to Cablevision in the form of 12.5 million shares of GE stock.
NBC also purchased Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.'s 20 percent interest in Bravo for $250 million in cash.
NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker will oversee Bravo. Jeff Gaspin, executive vice president of alternative series, specials, longform and program strategy, will manage the day-to-day operations of Bravo, in addition to his current duties.
The Bravo acquisition gives NBC its first cable outlet for entertainment programming. Bravo is available in about 68 million cable and satellite homes. NBC's other cable properties include MSNBC and CNBC, as well as minority stakes in ValueVision (ShopNBC), A&E Network and The History Channel.
