Comcast to buy GE’s 49 pct stake in NBCUniversal

Comcast said Tuesday that it's buying General Electric's 49 percent stake in the NBCUniversal joint venture for $16.7 billion several years early, as the company takes advantage of low borrowing costs and what CEO Brian Roberts called a "very attractive price."

The company is also buying from GE such assets as NBC's headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York and CNBC's headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., for about $1.4 billion.

At the same time, the company said it would raise its annual dividend 20 percent to 78 cents per share and buy back $2 billion in shares this year.

Comcast shares jumped $2.93, or 7.5 percent, to $41.90 in after-hours trading. GE shares rose 76 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $23.34.

Comcast Corp. had bought a majority stake in the television and movie company in 2011. It had planned to take a larger stake in it over seven years, paying for it from operating cash, starting in July 2014.

But Roberts told The Associated Press that the sale of its stake in pay TV network A&E and some wireless spectrum gave it plenty of cash on hand. He also says Comcast got a good deal given that the stock price of media conglomerates has been rising.

"We thought that we would have to pay more later," he said. More from AP Story