The Wright Stuffiness for Vivendi?

Bob Wright isn’t exactly Mr. Sizzle.

The 60-year-old NBC chairman is rarely seen at hot spots that cater to Hollywood’s power crowd. He’s more comfortable in a dark suit and tie, leading team meetings on the 52nd floor of Rockefeller Center in New York, or working the phones while he’s supposed to be vacationing in Nantucket, where his yacht, the Peacock, is moored.

Some of Wright’s contemporaries may find his style stiff and stuffy. But for the French executives of Vivendi Universal, who are auctioning their company’s entertainment assets, Wright is a breath of fresh air, a buttoned-down man in their own image.

“They’re suspicious of the breed that inhabits Hollywood,” said Howard Stringer, chairman of Sony Corp. of America. “They see that too many have been shipwrecked by the shoals of Beverly Hills.”

The personality of Wright and that of his network’s parent, General Electric Co., have pushed them to the front of the line in the contest for Vivendi Universal’s entertainment properties, which include film and TV studios, cable channels and theme parks.

NBC has proposed a deal vastly different from those of its rivals, one that relies heavily on its reputation for long-term stability. Rather than meet Vivendi’s minimum $14-billion bid for the properties, Wright has crafted an offer that would create a new entertainment company, merging NBC with Universal. Vivendi would be given a minority stake, plus GE stock. Theoretically, Vivendi’s payday would come down the road, when it sells its shares in the joint venture.

The NBC offer has gained momentum in recent days. Three bidders -- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., Liberty Media Corp. and a consortium headed by oil billionaire Marvin Davis -- have indicated that they would not meet Vivendi’s price target by this month’s second-round deadline.

It remains unclear whether former Seagram Co. chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. -- whose family owned the Universal entertainment assets before they were acquired by Vivendi -- and his financiers will up their ante to the minimum. Among other potential players, media conglomerate Viacom Inc. wants only some of the Universal assets, and cable giant Comcast Corp. has begun studying Vivendi’s books but has not joined the hunt.

For Wright, snagging Universal’s multifaceted properties would represent a professional and personal triumph. Since former GE Chairman Jack Welch appointed him 17 years ago, Wright has wanted to expand the network, especially as cable competition has intensified.

“I’d like to see NBC get bigger and stronger,” Wright said in an interview. “I want it to be relevant to people for many years to come.”

Among many industry observers, the question now is whether Wright can structure a deal that GE’s cautious brass can swallow or whether the risk-averse company could suddenly back out, as it has when negotiating past deals. Over the last five years, discussions with USA Networks, Discovery Communications Inc. and Sony have fallen apart over issues of price or corporate control.

GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt, 47, is considered slightly more adventurous, though less colorful, than his legendary predecessor, Welch, who retired two years ago. But, as a GE prodigy, he remains true to the company’s conservative character. Immelt joined GE at the age of 26, and his father worked for the company’s aircraft engines division for nearly four decades.

Known for his low-key, consensus-building style, Immelt just last year told an industry publication that GE was not interested in acquiring a film studio. NBC, however, has long been hampered by its lack of a major production facility. As a result, it has had to shell out millions of dollars to outside producers, such as Warner Bros. and Universal Television, which provide seven prime-time shows to NBC, including the successful “Law & Order” franchise.

In recent months, eager to boost revenues in GE’s media holdings and other key divisions, Immelt warmed up to the possibility of acquiring Vivendi Universal Entertainment. Still, he has dictated that only a small amount of cash, if any, be offered, sources close to the company said.

Wright has “definitely not been given carte blanche to go out and get this thing,” said Kerry Stirton, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. “They’ve said, ‘Go do a deal, but stay within limits.’ ”

Although some GE investors are skeptical about the upside of merging with Universal, Immelt’s increasing comfort level with an acquisition says much about his confidence in Wright.

Once dismissed as a “GE plastics guy,” Wright now is one of the longest serving and most successful television chiefs ever. He has built NBC into the industry’s most profitable network, on course to deliver $1.3 billion in profit this year. Under his stewardship, NBC has hit ratings gold with numerous shows, including “Friends,” “Frasier,” “The West Wing” and “Law & Order.”

Associates say Wright owes much of his success to his inquisitive nature and the management savvy he has developed serving not only as head of NBC but also as vice chairman of GE. He understands and shares the thinking at the top and knows how to fashion creative deals that stay within the corporation’s cautious approach.

In the mid-1990s, for example, Wright designed an unconventional package to keep a restless Jerry Seinfeld on the air and away from other networks. Although Seinfeld received millions of dollars from Castle Rock Entertainment, which made the show “Seinfeld,” the company also gave him GE stock. Seinfeld became the network’s business partner, in much the same way that Wright is trying to entice Vivendi.

“Jerry was a different kind of a talent, he owned the show, he wrote the show and he starred in it,” Wright said. “I approached him as an entrepreneur rather than as a performer.” The result: “Seinfeld” stayed on the air for nine seasons, earning hundreds of millions of dollars for NBC.

Wright began his GE career as a staff attorney in 1969, although his dream was to become a criminal defense attorney. He soon left to become a law clerk for the chief federal judge of New Jersey, who was presiding over the trial of the real-life Tony Soprano -- Sam De Cavalcante, known as “Sam the Plumber.”

After a stint as a private lawyer during the early 1970s, Wright was back at General Electric -- this time as a strategic planner in its plastics division. Then came his first break in entertainment. When GE began negotiating the purchase of Atlanta-based Cox Broadcasting Corp., which owned newspapers, cable systems and TV and radio stations, then-Chairman Welch needed someone to begin setting up shop.

“I raised my hand,” Wright said. Within short order, Wright was in Georgia with his three children and wife, Suzanne, one of his closest business confidants. Although the deal fell apart, Wright stayed in Georgia, where he was named president of Cox Cable Communications. “I could see all of the changes coming in television,” Wright said of his three years there. “Cable represented this huge new area, a great opportunity.”

But Wright still saw opportunity with his old employer. He returned to GE for a third tour of duty in 1983, this time as general manager of the housewares and audio division. One year later, he was named chief executive of GE Financial Services. Then came a job that would end the hopscotching: He was named president of NBC in 1986 after GE spent $6.3 billion to buy the network’s parent company, RCA.

“I hated to give up GE Capital -- I was just getting started there,” Wright said. “But when I arrived in NBC, I knew immediately that I wanted to be in cable. I wanted to be in all of the things that NBC wasn’t.”

Under Wright, the company invested in several cable ventures, launching business news channel CNBC in 1989. After a failed attempt to buy Ted Turner’s cable empire in 1995, Wright partnered with Microsoft Corp. to form the all-news channel MSNBC. During the last two years, NBC acquired cable channel Bravo and pushed into the rapidly growing Spanish-language media market by buying Telemundo.

“Bob challenged our culture in a big way,” said Randy Falco, NBC Television Network Group President, who has worked at NBC for 28 years.

“When he first came here, there wasn’t anybody who believed that we would be so involved in cable,” Falco said. “Some people feared that he was going to take his eye off the ball, but nothing could have been further from the truth.”

Instead, Falco said, Wright has focused on improving NBC’s fortunes, with big-budget deals to win the rights to broadcast the profitable Olympics, while exiting money-losing sports, such as professional football, baseball and basketball.

“We’d never heard the term strategic thinking before Bob Wright and GE came into our lives,” said Warren Littlefield, an independent TV producer and former NBC entertainment president. “I’ve always said that I wouldn’t bet against Bob.”

Wright, for his part, said he knows from experience that no deal is easy and that the problems you predict in the beginning are not always the ones that can trip you up in the end.

“It’s a dicey business when you’re in the buying-and-selling game,” he said. “But if you’re not out there looking, then you’re not going to get anything.”

*

Times staff writer Sallie Hofmeister contributed to this report.