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Comcast spinoff Versant (VSNT) starts trading on Nasdaq

admin — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 21:37:24 +0000

Versant Media Group, the portfolio of cable TV networks and digital assets spun off by Comcast, joined the small cohort of public media companies Monday as the industry reckons with ongoing disruption.

Versant began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “VSNT,” opening at $45.17 per share.

The company’s so-called when-issued stock — a security that is expected to be issued and has been authorized to trade on a conditional basis to give investors an early chance to buy shares — initially began trading on Dec. 15 at $55 per share and ended trading Friday at $46.65 per share.

As of close Monday, Versant shares had fallen to $40.57 per share, down 13% on the day.

The company’s market capitalization stands at roughly $6.5 billion with shares outstanding of 145.76 million based on the spinoff ratio. As part of the spinoff, Comcast shareholders received one share of Versant stock for every 25 shares of Comcast stock they owned.

“It’s been a year in the making,” said Mark Lazarus, Versant CEO, on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday.

In November 2024, Comcast announced its intention to separate out the bulk of NBCUniversal’s cable TV networks, including MS Now (formerly MSNBC), CNBC, Golf Channel, USA, E!, Syfy and Oxygen, as well as digital properties Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and Sports Engine.

“As part of Comcast and NBCU we had other priorities as a company,” Lazarus said. “We made different decisions, because we had a different company and a different strategy. Now we’re bringing these [assets] into their own company, we’re going to be able to invest into them. We’ll invest organically … and hopefully the market is listening to what we’re saying.”

Lazarus said “vertical scale” is necessary to diversify the business away from a dependence on pay TV.

“While that’s still a big, profitable part for us, it’s not going to be the end game,” he said.

There are few traditional media companies that have gone public in recent years — namely because of the significant challenges the industry has been facing due to the shift away from the TV bundle and toward streaming.

In 2025, Newsmax, the conservative cable news network, went public on the New York Stock Exchange and quickly saw its shares soar from its $14 per share opening price. It has fallen precipitously since its debut.

Instead, the media sector has been marked by a rush for consolidation and fresh M&A deals. Paramount Skydance completed its merger last year, and since then CEO David Ellison has been acquisitive. Warner Bros. Discovery, itself formed following a merger in 2022, last year kicked off a sale process that resulted in a proposed deal with Netflix. Paramount has since made a hostile offer to WBD shareholders to upend the proposed transaction with Netflix.

Mark Lazarus, CEO of Versant, visits the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 21, 2025.

Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

The Versant spinoff was likewise a result of the disruptive media landscape. Its executives, led by CEO Lazarus, former chairman of NBCUniversal’s media group, spent the final months of 2025 convincing Wall Street investors that the future of the business would be focused on growing the digital presence of its portfolio.

The company has also highlighted its strength in news and sports, the two categories of programming that still receive the bulk of TV viewers. Although networks like those in Versant’s portfolio are seeing declines in financials, they are still profitable and beckon ad dollars.

On Monday, Lazarus once again pointed to Versant’s weight in sports and news, saying 62% of the portfolio is in those two content areas.

“We have a really strong position,” Lazarus said.

In September Versant reported declining revenue in recent years as consumers exit the cable TV bundle.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of going public, Versant’s assets generated $7.1 billion in revenue in 2024 , down from $7.4 billion in 2023 and $7.8 billion in 2022. The company said its net income attributable to Versant was $1.4 billion in 2024, down from $1.5 billion in 2023 and $1.8 billion in 2022.

Shortly after, ratings agencies S&P Global and Fitch Ratings each issued BB credit ratings on the company’s debt noting stable outlooks, placing the company’s rating in junk territory. This was based on Versant’s plans to issue $2.75 billion of new senior secured debt to fund a one-time $2.25 billion cash distribution to Comcast and add $500 million to its balance sheet, according to S&P.

Versant’s low debt levels have boded well for the company with both ratings agencies and have been a highlight in its pitch to Wall Street investors. Media peers like Warner Bros. Discovery have grappled with heavy debt loads while also contending with the decline of cable TV subscribers and lower ad revenue.

Both ratings agencies noted the headwinds facing the traditional TV landscape, which S&P said “offset the strength of [Versant’s] portfolio,” noting that revenue from linear distribution and advertising from its networks accounted for more than 80% of total revenue.

Fitch said “the strong viewer loyalty and engagement” with Versant’s TV networks, as well as its conservative debt structure, bodes as a positive for the company.

Versant executives said at a recent investor day presentation that the company intends to grow its digital business through acquisitions and investments.

— CNBC’s Gina Francolla contributed to this article.

Disclosure: Versant is the parent company of CNBC.

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Baidu plans Hong Kong IPO of AI chip unit Kunlunxin in spin-off move

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 06:08:30 +0000

A general view of the Baidu logo is seen at the Shanghai New Expo Center during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2025 in Shanghai, China, on July 28, 2025.

Ying Tang | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Chinese tech giant Baidu has announced plans to spin off its artificial intelligence chip subsidiary, Kunlunxin, and list it in Hong Kong, as more domestic chipmakers seek funds amid Beijing’s push for semiconductor self-sufficiency.

The company said in an announcement Friday that it had confidentially filed a listing application on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, though details of the offering, including size and structure, remain undecided.

The move would still require regulatory approvals, including from China’s securities watchdog. Baidu emphasized there is no guarantee the spin-off will proceed. The company reportedly owns about 59% of Kunlunxin.

Baidu, a major player in China’s growing AI space, is both a buyer of specialized AI chips for data centers and cloud computing, as well as a designer of them through Kunlunxin.

The firm said that the spin-off would align with its strategy to highlight Kunlunxin’s standalone potential, attract sector-specific investors, and expand financing options. Kunlunxin would remain a Baidu subsidiary, it added.

The move comes against a backdrop of intensifying U.S.-China tech tensions. Both Washington and Beijing have imposed various restrictions on Chinese AI companies’ access to leading-edge AI chips from California-based Nvidia.

Meanwhile, Beijing has increasingly encouraged domestic chip purchases and mobilized billions in public funds towards development.

In recent months, several Chinese chipmakers have announced plans to list, including Moore Threads and Biren Technology.

A Growing Business Focus

Founded in 2012, Kunlunxin is central to Baidu’s ambition to become a “full stack” AI company, spanning hardware, servers and data centers, as well as AI models and applications.

While Baidu still relies heavily on Nvidia’s chips for AI computing power, Kunlunxin has enabled the company to increasingly use a mix of its self-developed chips in data centers running its Ernie AI models.

Kunlunxin has also shifted to operate as a separate entity, expanding its sales to third-party customers outside Baidu.

“In the market, Kunlunxin is seen as one of the most practical and widely used AI chips in China,” Brady Wang, associate director at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC.

He added that one of the chipmaker’s main strengths is in software. “Instead of forcing users to adopt a closed system, Kunlunxin works well with common AI frameworks and makes it easier to move workloads from [Nvidia].”

Reuters previously reported that Kunlunxin’s revenue is projected to exceed 3.5 billion yuan ($500 million) last year, reaching break-even. External sales were expected to account for more than half of its revenue in 2025, the report added.

In another sign of strength last year, Kunlunxin won orders worth over 1 billion yuan from suppliers to China Mobile, one of the country’s biggest mobile carriers.

China Mobile also participated in the entity’s latest funding, which had raised over 2 billion yuan and valued the unit at about 21 billion yuan, according to Reuters.

In its announcement, Baidu said its plans to spin off and list Kunlunxin would better tie management incentives with performance and elevate the unit’s market presence.

Late last year, JPMorgan analysts forecast that Kunlunxin’s chip sales would increase sixfold to 8 billion Chinese yuan in 2026.

However, while Kunlunxin may help reduce China’s reliance on chips from Nvidia, it cannot fully replace them, Counterpoint’s Wang said, citing Beijing’s ongoing constraints in advanced chip manufacturing.

“[Kunlunxin’s chips] work best for inference and other workloads that are easier to move, especially for government, telecom, and state-owned cloud users, where stable supply and lower cost matter more than top performance,” he said.

“Because of this, Beijing is not relying on a single company. Instead, Kunlunxin works together with Huawei Ascend, Cambricon, Alibaba, and others to build a domestic AI computing ecosystem.”

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Comcast spinoff Versant announces board of directors

admin — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 06:17:07 +0000

Versant signage on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on July 21, 2025.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Comcast on Thursday announced the expected board members of its cable networks spinout, Versant.

They come from backgrounds in media, technology, finance and other industries, according to Versant.

Versant will be the parent company of what are now NBCUniversal’s cable networks, including USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel. On the digital front, it is also set to house Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow, GolfPass and SportsEngine.

The spinoff is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Here is the slate of board members:

Mark Lazarus

Mark Lazarus is the CEO of Versant. Previously, he was chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group.

Mark Lazarus, CEO of Versant, visits the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on July 21, 2025.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

“The announcement of the future Board marks a critical milestone as we define our long-term strategy and advance the value of our iconic media portfolio,” Lazarus said in a statement. “I look forward to collaborating with this distinguished group as we establish a leading independent media company.”

David Novak

David Novak is the prospective chairman of Versant.

He is a longtime board member of Comcast and the former CEO of Yum Brands. He will resign from his position on Comcast’s board at the time of the spinoff, according to Versant.

Rebecca Campbell

Rebecca Campbell is the former chairman of international content and operations at The Walt Disney Company. She is also the interim CEO of Meow Wolf, an arts and entertainment company.

Creighton Condon

Creighton Condon is counsel at global law firm A&O Shearman, advising clients on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures. He also counsels boards of directors and special committees.

Michael Conway

Michael Conway is the former CEO of Starbucks North America. Prior to Starbucks, he worked at Johnson & Johnson and Campbell Soup Company. He has also served as a McCormick board director for the past 10 years.

David Eun

David Eun is a founding advisor to generative artificial intelligence firm Kanza AI, which is focused on health, wellness and medicine. He is also co-founder of investment firm Alakai Group. Previously, he was president and chief innovation officer of Samsung Electronics.

Gerald Hassell

Gerald Hassell is the former chairman and CEO of the Bank of New York Mellon. He is also a former director of Comcast and MetLife.

Scott Mahoney

Scott Mahoney is the chairman and CEO of Peter Millar, a golf apparel company. He previously worked at Polo Ralph Lauren. He is also on the board of directors of Fleet Feet, a running shoe and apparel company.

Maritza Montiel

Maritza Montiel is the former deputy CEO and vice chairman of Deloitte & Touche LLP’s U.S. business.

Montiel has served on the board of directors at McCormick for the past 10 years and is currently on the board of directors for cruise company Royal Caribbean. She is a former director of Comcast and Aptar.

Len Potter

Len Potter founded Wildcat Capital Management, a registered investment advisor, and has served as its president and CEO since its start. He is also a founder and senior managing director of Vida Ventures, a biotech venture fund.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC under the proposed spinoff.

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