Microsoft opts out of venture with NBC
Source: Agencies |
July 17, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
MICROSOFT is pulling out of the joint venture that owned MSNBC.com, freeing the world's largest software maker to build its own online news service.
The breakup announced late on Sunday dissolves the final shreds of a 16-year marriage between Microsoft Corp and NBC News, which is now owned by Comcast Corp. The relationship began to unwind in 2005 when Microsoft sold its stake in MSNBC's cable TV channel to NBC.
NBC is buying Microsoft's 50 percent interest in the MSNBC website for an undisclosed amount. MSNBC.com will be rebranded as NBCNews.com. Readers who logged into MSNBC.com will now be automatically redirected to NBCNews.com.
The website will move its headquarters from Microsoft's corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, to NBC News' longtime home in New York.
The online divorce stemmed from the two partners' desire to gain greater control over their digital destinies as the Internet becomes an increasingly important part of their businesses.
The inherent constraints of being locked into a joint venture sometimes handcuffed Microsoft and NBC.
Microsoft, in particular, had grown frustrated by contract terms requiring it to exclusively feature MSNBC.com content on its own websites. That was exacerbated by the MSNBC cable channel's strategy to counter Fox News Channel's appeal to conservative viewers by tailoring its programming for an audience with a liberal viewpoint.
The strategy fed a perception that material from MSNBC's website was politically slanted, too.
"Being limited to MSNBC.com content was problematic to us because we couldn't have the multiple news sources and the multiple perspectives that our users were telling us that they wanted," said Bob Visse, general manager of MSN.com.
Now that it has shed those shackles, Microsoft is preparing to launch its own news service this autumn. Although he declined to provide many details about the operation, Visse said the news staff will be about the same size as the roughly 100 people who created original content for MSNBC.com.
By hiring its own news staff to feed material to its websites, Microsoft is embracing the same strategy as Yahoo and AOL.
The breakup announced late on Sunday dissolves the final shreds of a 16-year marriage between Microsoft Corp and NBC News, which is now owned by Comcast Corp. The relationship began to unwind in 2005 when Microsoft sold its stake in MSNBC's cable TV channel to NBC.
NBC is buying Microsoft's 50 percent interest in the MSNBC website for an undisclosed amount. MSNBC.com will be rebranded as NBCNews.com. Readers who logged into MSNBC.com will now be automatically redirected to NBCNews.com.
The website will move its headquarters from Microsoft's corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, to NBC News' longtime home in New York.
The online divorce stemmed from the two partners' desire to gain greater control over their digital destinies as the Internet becomes an increasingly important part of their businesses.
The inherent constraints of being locked into a joint venture sometimes handcuffed Microsoft and NBC.
Microsoft, in particular, had grown frustrated by contract terms requiring it to exclusively feature MSNBC.com content on its own websites. That was exacerbated by the MSNBC cable channel's strategy to counter Fox News Channel's appeal to conservative viewers by tailoring its programming for an audience with a liberal viewpoint.
The strategy fed a perception that material from MSNBC's website was politically slanted, too.
"Being limited to MSNBC.com content was problematic to us because we couldn't have the multiple news sources and the multiple perspectives that our users were telling us that they wanted," said Bob Visse, general manager of MSN.com.
Now that it has shed those shackles, Microsoft is preparing to launch its own news service this autumn. Although he declined to provide many details about the operation, Visse said the news staff will be about the same size as the roughly 100 people who created original content for MSNBC.com.
By hiring its own news staff to feed material to its websites, Microsoft is embracing the same strategy as Yahoo and AOL.
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