Last week, Comcast said it was moving forward with a plan to spin off its NBCUniversal cable networks into a separate company. The Wall Street Journal reports that news prompted speculation that the Tesla chief executive Elon Musk might pursue left-leaning news channel MSNBC.
Musk, who hasn’t been shy about his criticisms of MSNBC, calling the network “utter scum of the Earth,” fueled that story line in an exchange on X, the social-media platform he owns. When Donald Trump Jr. posted about MSNBC, encouraging Musk to buy it, the billionaire replied: “How much does it cost?”
It is unclear how serious Musk is about MSNBC, but buying the network wouldn’t be an easy feat. Comcast isn’t interested in selling off individual assets, people familiar with the matter said. It plans for the spinoff company, which will include several other NBCUniversal channels such as CNBC, USA, Syfy and E!, to explore acquisitions of other cable networks.
After Comcast completes the transaction—a process that is expected to take about a year—the new company will negotiate distribution deals with companies such as Charter Communications. MSNBC, with its loyal following, will provide critical leverage in those discussions, the people said.
“They never had any intention of selling things off piecemeal,” said Joseph Bonner, a senior analyst in technology, media and telecommunications at Argus Research. “Maybe if the price is right, they would do it.”
Comcast’s chairman and CEO, Brian Roberts, holds a one-third voting stake in the company, giving him significant sway in major decisions such as the sale of assets. Roberts will also hold a one-third voting stake in the new company, though he won’t serve on the board.
If Musk did go after MSNBC, it likely wouldn’t be anywhere near Twitter’s price tag: The new cable company’s annual revenue, across all its networks, would be about $7 billion, and its assets are in decline in a media world dominated by streaming.
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