The sale comes amid the break-up of the Weather Channel's parent company Landmark Communications, which is privately owned.
According to a report in the New York Times, JP Morgan has been appointed to handle the sale of the Weather Channel, and people who have been briefed on the sale report that interest is coming from companies including Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which just bought Dow Jones, NBC, which is part of General Electric, and cable operator Comcast.
It is thought that News Corp could be interested in acquiring the cable channel to sit alongside the Fox News network. Weather.com already has a deal with News Corp-owned MySpace to provide forecasts to users.
Audiences for Weather Channel are treated to live coverage of hurricanes and other dramatic weather, as well as programming on issues relating to climate change. Its website is the 18th largest in the US, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, with 32m unique users in November. It also provides weather to websites such as Yahoo and AOL.
Other assets owned by Landmark include local and regional newspapers and the online marketing agency Landmark Interactive.
The disposal of the rest of the company is being handled by Lehman Brothers.
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
