NBC News Now Full Owner of MSNBC Digital Network
NBCUniversal has bought out the 50 percent of the MSNBC Digital Network owned by Microsoft, and is now its sole owner. MSNBC assets include msnbc.com, Today.com, NightlyNews.com, BreakingNews.com, Newsvine.com, EveryBlock.com, and all the apps and extensions created by those properties.
NBC News will now combine its existing assets with the MSNBC assets to create a new division called NBC News Digital. The existing NBC News properties include TV shows "Today," "NBC Nightly News," "Meet the Press," "Dateline," and "Rock Center," as well as MSNBC on cable, NBC News Radio, NBC News Mobile, and NBC Learn, the company's educational division.
NBC has already tossed out the MSNBC site, so links to MSNBC now go to NBCNews.com. Story pages, however, live at msnbc.msn.com. An article on the site explains that this will change "eventually," and that msnbc.com will become the web home of MSNBC TV. The idea is to separate the news content from the commentary of the MSNBC cable channel.
MSBNC was formed jointly by Microsoft and NBC in 1996 as a way to combine NBC's news coverage with Microsoft's technology expertise. NBC reports that untangled the ties between the two companies will take at least two years. In that transition period, NBCNews.com will provide content for MSN.com, and Microsoft will continue to sell ads for NBC.com.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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