Elon Musk buying MSNBC? A difficult feat, because it isn’t for sale

Can Elon Musk make a run at acquiring MSNBC? It would be a steep climb. One big reason: it isn’t for sale.

Last week, Comcast said it was moving forward with a plan to spin off its NBCUniversal cable networks into a separate company. That news prompted speculation that the Tesla chief executive might pursue left-leaning news channel MSNBC.

Musk, who hasn’t been shy about his criticisms of MSNBC, calling the network “utter scum of the Earth,” fueled that story line in an exchange on X, the social-media platform he owns. When Donald Trump Jr. posted about MSNBC, encouraging Musk to buy it, the billionaire replied: “How much does it cost?”

It is unclear how serious Musk is about MSNBC, but buying the network wouldn’t be an easy feat. Comcast isn’t interested in selling off individual assets, people familiar with the matter said. It plans for the spinoff company, which will include several other NBCUniversal channels such as CNBC, USA, Syfy and E!, to explore acquisitions of other cable networks.

“We are looking forward to the planned spin of our cable networks, which will create a new company owned by our shareholders—none of these assets are for sale,” a Comcast spokeswoman said in a written statement.

After Comcast completes the transaction—a process that is expected to take about a year—the new company will negotiate distribution deals with companies such as Charter Communications. MSNBC, with its loyal following, will provide critical leverage in those discussions, the people said.

“They never had any intention of selling things off piecemeal,” said Joseph Bonner, a senior analyst in technology, media and telecommunications at Argus Research. “Maybe if the price is right, they would do it.”

Comcast’s chairman and CEO, Brian Roberts, holds a one-third voting stake in the company, giving him significant sway in major decisions such as the sale of assets. Roberts will also hold a one-third voting stake in the new company, though he won’t serve on the board.

That is a far different setup than Twitter, which Musk bought for $44 billion in 2022, and renamed as X. Musk was its largest shareholder at the time he pulled off the acquisition.

Musk and X didn’t respond to requests for comment.

If Musk did go after MSNBC, it likely wouldn’t be anywhere near Twitter’s price tag: The new cable company’s annual revenue, across all its networks, would be about $7 billion, and its assets are in decline in a media world dominated by streaming.

Once the new company is created, carving MSNBC out of it could be more challenging, because the nature of the transaction—a tax-free spinoff to Comcast shareholders—limits flexibility to pursue follow-on deals, said Wall Street observers.

“The tax implications are unclear if then the [spinoff company] goes selling things off piecemeal,” Bonner said.

When Musk bought X, he said he made the transaction to “have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.”

MSNBC, which is known for personalities such as Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid, is adjusting to a second Trump administration. Last week, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the co-hosts of “Morning Joe,” shared with viewers that they had met with President-elect Donald Trump as part of an effort to “do something different,” after months of coverage characterizing Trump as a threat to democracy. The move was met with significant backlash from both sides of the aisle.

MSNBC’s ratings fell after Trump’s victory. From Nov. 6 through Nov. 21, the network averaged 527,000 viewers, a 38% drop from the 847,000 it garnered from January through Nov. 4, the day before the election.

Musk’s right-wing allies, from Donald Trump Jr. to Joe Rogan, have been egging him on to make a move on MSNBC in recent days.

“Media assets themselves have always had sort of political positioning, but now the business of media is getting just as deeply politicized,” said Craig Moffett, a senior analyst and co-founder at MoffettNathanson.

Jessica Toonkel contributed to this article.

Write to Isabella Simonetti at isabella.simonetti@wsj.com