(Newser)
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Discovery Communications will go public, upping the media company’s ability to make deals while opening it to shareholder and Wall Street opinion. The “MythBusters” and “LA Ink” broadcaster will be able to spend more on new programming and acquire other businesses more readily. Analysts expect shares to trade in the $30 range when they’re offered publicly in 2008's second quarter.
Conde Nast owner Advance/Newhouse was an initial investor in Discovery and will receive preferred shares of the new stock, the Washington Post reports. As to adverse impacts of answering to the profit-driven market, the CEO—poached this year from NBC Universal—said Discovery would maintain its informational slate. “We don’t have any wet T-shirts; we don’t have any girls behaving badly.”
