The media giant had been in the running along with America Online and magazine giants Hachette Filipacchi and Hearst to buy iVillage.
IVillage offers women information on motherhood and men, as well as gossip, fashion and dieting. NBC Universal said the website's audience of 14m unique visitors a month mirrored its key demographic audience of women.
It plans to promote iVillage in programmes including 'The Today Show', 'Project Runway' and the weight-loss reality programme 'The Biggest Loser', as well as in all of the health and lifestyle segments it runs on its network of TV stations, which include NBC and the Sci Fi Channel among others.
The move reflects a trend for major traditional media companies to invest in new media companies. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has also been investing heavily in online properties, including MySpace.com, which it bought last year for $580m.
Bob Wright, chairman and CEO of NBC Universal, said: "Acquiring iVillage will enable us to bring our programming to a large and passionate online community.
"We look forward to building on the considerable brand strength iVillage has developed over the past 10 years and to giving our advertising clients new and exciting ways to reach a valuable demographic."
NBC Universal is 80% owned by General Electric and 20% owned by Vivendi Universal.
The UK operation was at one time a joint venture with Tesco, but the retailer sold back its interest to iVillage.
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