Remember how Microsoft and NBC teamed up to form the MSNBC cable news network? Nowadays, most people are not even aware that Microsoft had anything to do with MSNBC. Indeed, NBC bought out Microsoft"s stake in the cable network several years ago.
While MSNBC is now fully in NBC"s hands, the odd thing is that MSNBC.com is still partly owned by Microsoft. That could change later this year. AdWeek.com claims it has heard from a number of unnamed sources that NBC and its parent company Comcast are in talks with Microsoft to buy the stake in MSNBC.com that it doesn"t already own.
The website is extremely popular; the article claims that according to ComScore, MSNBC.com has 55.7 million unique visitors per month. However, part of that traffic comes from Microsoft"s MSN.com site where MSNBC has some prime real estate. If NBC does buy out Microsoft"s portion in MSNBC.com, the article speculates that NBC could ask to keep that placement on MSN.com.
So far, neither Microsoft nor NBC have commented on any MSNBC.com deal. We do think this will happen eventually; Microsoft has already moved on with its media tie-in plans via its Xbox business and it could see MSNBC.com has something that"s a bit old school for them to deal with.
Via: The Verge
Source: AdWeek.com