Today the New York Times quotes Mr. Immelt as saying they wouldn't be selling NBC, period:
Now hear this: NBC Universal is not for sale. No how, no way.
Looking to squelch persistent rumors, Jeffrey R. Immelt, the chairman of General Electric, plans to make his most definitive statement yet about his company’s chief media asset.
“Should we sell NBCU? The answer is no!” Mr. Immelt writes in a message for investors in G.E.’s 2007 annual report, to be released Wednesday. “I just don’t see it happening. Not before the Olympics, not after the Olympics. It doesn’t make sense.”
The statement is clearly meant to address the most prevalent of the recent rumors, which is that G.E. will wait until after the Beijing Olympics in August, which will be televised on NBC and its cable channels, before deciding whether to unload the division....MORE
