According to a Wall
Street Journal
report, second round bids come due Friday for the cable channel
and its related assets, with Time Warner and a bid team of General Electric
Co.'s NBC Universal and New York private equity firm Blackstone Group LP in place as the top two among remaining bidders.
Bids are expected in
the $3 billion to $4 billion range, the Journal said, citing sources familiar
with the auction. When reports first surfaced in January the Norfolk, Va., media
company was auctioning the division and considering a broader
restructuring, Landmark was said to be
hoping to fetch $5 billion for
the Atlanta company, which comprises the Weather Channel Networks, the Weather
Channel Interactive, including weather.com, and B2B weather information provider
WSI Corp.
Landmark tapped J.P.
Morgan for advice on the Weather Channel sale, while Lehman Brothers Inc. is
advising the company on its other media divestitures, Richard F. Barry III, the
company's vice chairman confirmed in a January report by The Virginian-Pilot,
Landmark's flagship paper. - Carolyn Murphy
See full story on TheDeal.com
See Wall Street Journal story
See earlier story on TheDeal.com: Weather Channel could fetch $5B
