Not in Talks to Buy NBC Stake, Microsoft Says

Software giant Microsoft Corp. denied a report published Monday that it was engaged in talks to take a major equity position in NBC-TV, the nation’s leading television network.

“The report in Daily Variety that Microsoft is involved in discussions to buy up to 49% of NBC are not true,” said Allison O’Brien, spokeswoman for Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, which normally declines to comment on such rumors.

Daily Variety, an entertainment business trade newspaper, citing sources familiar with the talks, said that top NBC executives, with the blessings of “top brass” at parent General Electric Co., were in top-secret talks over the possibility of Microsoft buying as much as 49% of NBC, an investment valued at $4 billion or more.

NBC is expected to announce plans for an all-news network at the end of this week and the network has been negotiating with Microsoft Corp. for a 50-50 partnership in that new channel. Under the deal, sources say, NBC would feed Microsoft’s online service with news and promote the service while Microsoft would promote the cable channel on the online service.

NBC also denied the report in Variety.