The buyout firms that own
Weather Channel Cos. have spoken to JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. about strategic options including a possible sale, according to people familiar with the matter.Weather Channel hasn’t begun a formal process or hired a bank, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions were private. Blackstone Group LP, Bain Capital LLC and Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal bought Weather Channel Cos. in 2008 for about $3.5 billion.The private-equity firms are interested in exploring the idea of selling all or part of the company, according to two people familiar with the matter. They also may decide to hold their ownership stakes rather than sell, the people said.Representatives for Weather Channel, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, NBCUniversal, Blackstone and Bain declined to comment.Weather Channel, which is distributed to more than 100 million U.S. households, could potentially be sold to a cable network company, while the company’s weather data could be acquired separately, one of the people said. The businesses combined have a value of at least $3.5 billion, the person said.Weather Channel Cos. includes the
Weather Channel television network, digital properties including Weather.com, Weather Underground and Intellicast.com, and
Weather Services International, or WSI, a weather forecasting service.