Microsoft Corp. and Comcast Corp owned NBC News announced late Sunday that the two companies were dissolving its news site-msnbc.com, a joint endeavor between the two. Microsoft will be starting its own online news service, which might be launched this fall. The format is suspected to be more in the line of AOL and Yahoo's news sites, both of which are hugely sucessfull.
According to reports Microsoft lost around $10 billion in past 10 years in the company's online ventures which include its search engine Bing and the MSNBC site.
Neither company has made any claims of a tussle or any tensions between the two and say that the break-up was cordial. In fact, the break-up was anything but a sudden break, Microsoft had been selling its shares in the company since 2005.
Vivian Schiller, NBC News' chief digital officer told the Associated Press, "This is really an amicable breakup. We think competition will make us better."
NBC News is said to buy Microsoft's shares, which amounts to 50 percent of the websites shares for an undisclosed amount. The joint venture of 16 years will be rebranded as NBCNEws.com and people who log into MSNBC.com will automatically be redirected to the new website. The general manager of MSN.com, Bob Visse thinks the spilt from Microsoft Corp. will have a positive effect on the remodeled newswire, "There is no question that we are going to have more flexibility to make our own decisions," according to the Associated Press.
Currently, Microsoft is letting NBC remain at its head-office in Redman, while it looks to relocate. NBC has said that it would soon move the site's headquarters to New York, but will maintain a permanent staff in the Redmond office.
