Spinco is Now Versant

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Mark Jeffries

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May 8, 2025, 3:41:32 PM5/8/25
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The dumping ground for Comcast's cable channels and websites (except Bravo), called tentatively Spinco, is now Versant, evoking strength and forward movement (yeah, that describes the cable business right now--not)--the company will be leaving 30 Rock within the next year, with MSNBC or whatever it's going to be called moving with it, CNBC is staying in Englewood Cliffs and both channels' Washington bureaus will move to another floor away from NBC News in the building they're in now:

Bob Jersey

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May 9, 2025, 12:05:56 PM5/9/25
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Versant News and Versant Business make as much sense as anything IMO... I mean, crumbs, how long has it been since Versus was a thing?     B

Mark Jeffries, May 8th:

PGage

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May 9, 2025, 3:43:03 PM5/9/25
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I prefer SpinCo. 

Does this mean the cable news channel will still be called MSNBC even though It is no longer part of either Microsoft or NBC? I always hated that name MSNBC, and never liked it better as time went on. I had thought SpinCo  would’ve been an opportunity to come up with a new and better name. And the rebranding opportunity might be a big help these days.

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On Thu, 8 May 2025 at 12:41 PM Mark Jeffries <spotl...@gmail.com> wrote:
The dumping ground for Comcast's cable channels and websites (except Bravo), called tentatively Spinco, is now Versant, evoking strength and forward movement (yeah, that describes the cable business right now--not)--the company will be leaving 30 Rock within the next year, with MSNBC or whatever it's going to be called moving with it, CNBC is staying in Englewood Cliffs and both channels' Washington bureaus will move to another floor away from NBC News in the building they're in now:

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Jim Ellwanger

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May 9, 2025, 4:31:36 PM5/9/25
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Seems like every company that's preparing to spin off part of its operations uses "SpinCo" as a placeholder for the name of the spun-off company. Way back in 2016 when I worked at Yahoo, SpinCo was going to be a holding company for their investments in Alibaba, the Chinese tech company. (The Yahoo corporation instead sold all their OTHER assets to Verizon, including the Yahoo name and trademarks, and changed their name to Altaba.)

More recently, in the merger plan for Kroger and Albertsons, SpinCo was going to be a company that owned the stores they were going to divest in order to get merger approval. (They later altered the plan to instead sell the stores to a grocery wholesaler named C&S, but it became moot when the merger effort was discontinued.)

Those are just two examples I could think of off the top of my head - I know there have been others (but this is something that's hard to search for!).


Bob Jersey

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Jul 24, 2025, 1:26:01 PM7/24/25
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They introduced their board early today (7/24)... noticeable by his absence, Kabletown czar Brian Roberts... chairing will be David Novak, once of fast food titans Yum!, who will not remain on CMCS' board... Mark Lazarus will be CEO:
Mark Jeffries, May 8th:
The dumping ground for Comcast's cable channels and websites (except Bravo), called tentatively Spinco, is now Versant, evoking strength and forward movement (yeah, that describes the cable business right now--not)--the company will be leaving 30 Rock within the next year, with MSNBC or whatever it's going to be called moving with it, CNBC is staying in Englewood Cliffs and both channels' Washington bureaus will move to another floor away from NBC News in the building they're in now:

M-D November

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Jul 28, 2025, 12:29:56 PM7/28/25
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If they had any sense of humor, they'd have called the spinoff "Kabletown" or "Sheinhardt Wig Company".

Bob Jersey

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Jul 30, 2025, 9:24:18 AM7/30/25
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They now have their first news exec, with Nightly News' Meghan Rafferty becoming VP/news standards, cuz lord knows they're gonna need 'em in the face of le gros orange...
B

Doug Eastick

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Jul 30, 2025, 11:38:43 AM7/30/25
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I remain very curious to know what MSNBC and CNBC will be renamed to.

I'm guessing MSNBC will become Verity, but that's only because Copilot suggested it as one of the names when I asked it.





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Bob Jersey

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Jul 30, 2025, 10:03:05 PM7/30/25
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All we have for now are reports from late '24/early '25 such as this one from Ted Johnson quoting Lazarus as being against any rebranding:
https://deadline.com/2025/01/msnbc-name-comcast-spinoff-1236256381/ (link)
B

Doug Eastick, to moi, July 30th:
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