NBCUniversal -- which comprises TV property NBC as well as film studio Universal Pictures -- is getting out of the Snapchat business.
As first spotted by The Hollywood Reporter, in a 10-K filing by parent company Comcast from Jan. 31, the media conglomerate sold its entire $500 million stake in Snapchat parent company Snap. NBCU first announced that it was investing half a billion dollars into Snap three years ago, as the company was going public, amid other investments by NBCU into digital properties BuzzFeed and Vox.
The Reporter reports that the sale likely serves to offset the reported $2 billion that Comcast is deploying to launch its own streaming service, Peacock, as well as the $39 billion it spent to acquire British media and telecom conglomerate Sky. Per the filming, Comcast recorded a $293 million gain on the sale of its Snap equity in fiscal 2019, but lost $263 million on the investment in 2018, when Snap’s stock price fell in the wake of its IPO....
