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6 billion initially announced in September television assets with the NBC empire The companies' decision to enter exclusive talks last month marked the end of a long-running auction, with at least five other companies showing interest in the U Walt Disney Co owns ABC and News Corp Universal Music Group, the largest music company, is not part of the deal and will be retained by Vivendi For Vivendi, the deal offers an opportunity to trim back debts ââ‚¬â€? which totaled $13 billion at the end of July ââ‚¬â€? run up during a buying spree under former chief executive Jean-Marie Messier Vivendi's chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou told reporters in a conference call Wednesday that its U , which owns MTV and CBS entertainment assets with GE's television network NBC, creating a media giant with an estimated value of $43 billion The new company will include the NBC television network and its cable channels CNBC, MSNBC and Bravo, plus the Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo, which NBC acquired in 2001 NBC Universal will be led by Bob Wright, vice chairman of GE and chairman and chief executive of NBC, the companies said The deal will allow Vivendi to pair up its limited U Vivendi, G S E TV holdings "were too small to be really competitive on the American television scene From the Vivendi side, the new company will get the Universal movie and TV studios ââ‚¬â€? which already make NBC's hit show "Law & Order" ââ‚¬â€? plus the USA, Sci-Fi and Trio cable channels and several theme parks 3 billion ââ‚¬â€? which will enhance Fourtou's debt-reduction program , which had revenues of $25 billion NBC has been the only major network not owned by a larger media conglomerate " He said Vivendi Universal had been having trouble negotiating contracts for the channels -based entertainment empire S The deal will give NBC more weight in an industry dominated by companies like AOL Time Warner and Viacom Inc Vivendi, an 86 percent shareholder of the Vivendi Universal Entertainment, is to receive $3 Sign Definitive Agreement Oct 8, 6:14 AM EST Vivendi Universal and General Electric said Wednesday they signed an agreement to merge the French company's U The combination requires regulatory approvals in Washington and Brussels, but is expected to be finalized in the first half of 2004, Vivendi executives said , which had $41 billion in revenues last year, and Walt Disney Co The terms of the deal were largely unchanged from a preliminary agreement reached a month ago, when the two companies entered exclusive talks about a merger and sketched out broad outlines for a combined company to be called NBC Universal S Fourtou said the merger would allow Vivendi to reduce debt to $5 billion and be a profitable company by the end of 2004 7 billion of Vivendi's debt, slightly above the $1 The newly created company will have about $13 billion in annual revenues, making it a sizable competitor in the media field but still much smaller than industry giants like AOL Time Warner Inc S NBC will own 80 percent of the new entity, with the remaining 20 percent controlled by Vivendi owns Fox In addition, NBC will take on $1