NBCU Hoping To Buy All Of MSNBC.com

NBCUniversal is in negotiations to buy out Microsoft’s stake in MSNBC.com, the Wall Street Journal and AdWeek report. NBC acquired Microsoft’s last remaining stake in the cable network in 2007. But the website MSNBC.com has remained a joint venture with a separate identity from the liberal network. NBC News is eager to have its own website and identity — NBCNews.com, perhaps. Discussions have been going on for months about how to integrate staffs at NBC News in New York with the website staff in Redmond, Wash. NBC is also hesitant to give up the traffic that MSNBC.com attracts because of its place on MSN’s portal. MSNBC.com got 42 million unique visitors in April. Any deal would likely allow the site to retain some of that traffic.