Ann Curry Out At NBC News; Forming NBCU-Backed Startup – Update

UPDATE, 1:17 PM: Ann Curry is leaving NBC News, but she’s still going to be doing business with them — in one form or another. The former Today co-host will be putting together her own media startup into which NBCUniversal is putting an initial investment. “We’re proud to support Ann in her new venture, and we look forward to more of her exceptional storytelling,” said NBCUniversal News Group chairman Pat Fili-Krushel in a statement today. “She is committed to uncovering critical issues, humanizing them, and ultimately helping viewers understand and connect.”

No details were revealed of how much money the Comcast-owned corporation is seeding Curry’s new venture with, but we do know her content will let her “report on any platform and on any network, including NBC News,” so we might see the not-often-seen reporter on-air more than in recent years. We’ve also heard from well placed sources that Curry’s departure from NBC News is effective immediately but, after a 25-year career there, that she might be still around 30 Rock the next few days.

PREVIOUSLY, 12: 16 PM: More than 2 1/2 years after she was pushed aside from NBC’s Today, Ann Curry is leaving NBC News. A senior exec at the network confirmed the unsurprising departure to Deadline today.

The former morning show co-host was very publicly pink-slipped from Today on June 28, 2012, after 18 months on the sofa with Matt Lauer. With a hefty $12 million-a-year contract in hand, Curry then became a national and international correspondent for NBC News afterward as well as a rarely seen Anchor at Large for her former show. Despite the titles and occasional overseas gigs and stints hosting Meet The Press and NBC Nightly News, Curry was a relatively small presence on-air in the past two years.

Even though NBC denied in January 2014 that it was not going to re-up Curry, sources say that her now-pending and unspecified departure had to do with dissatisfaction on both sides of how much — or rather how little — she was actually doing. As for her future, we hear that Curry is going to go the way of many a former news anchor like ex-CNNer Soledad O’Brien and put together her own documentary-making production company.