1.) GE and NBCU aren't only interested in finding a buyer for the 20 percent stake owned by Vivendi, but perhaps a buyer for everything...
2.) Even by entering into talks, GE has signaled that it's about to go in a different direction, and away from the biz that it's been on-and-off allied with since the '20s (though of course bought NBC via its purchase of RCA in the mid-80s.)
3.) That GE, perforce, has lost confidence in current management's ability to ever turn around this badly leaking ship, and by "ship" I mean the most visible portion of this empire, the network - although everything else seems to be in good shape.
4.) That the broadcasting business is faced with so many uncertainties, why would GE need to have just one additional burden on its already-over-burdened balance sheet?
5.) That a sale, or even talk of a sale, might significantly boost the stock price, because I suspect investors might like to this burden lifted as well as a nice infusion of cash.
6.) That a sale to Comcast would finally put the Philly company in the spot it's wanted to be for year - as a major content provider to rival rivals Time Warner, Disney and News Corp. - latter controls DirecTV. Such a deal would or may put the onus on CBS to find a partner, too, since in the eyes of the street, a standalone broadcaster would seem to be out-maneuvered and outflanked. Comcast is run by Steve Burke, a particularly bright fellow who was once a rising star at Disney before he had some sort of falling out with Bob Iger; he's always been preaching the benefits of content, much as John Malone did so many years ago when that seer was a huge Denver-based cable operator.
7.) That a sale would also test the Obama Justice Department rather significantly. I believe - though will check further - that a major cable operator can own TV stations, BUT that the FCC has in place a so-called horizontal cap that limits how many viewers the operator can reach in an individual market. I don’t know how that’d work across the country, but if this deal were to ever happen, Comcast would instantly be a major player in the city that never sleeps, not to mention tri-state area, where Time Warner and Cablevision have long divided most of the spoils.