(MENAFN) Microsoft Corp. stated that it is breaking its 16-year old MSNBC.com joint venture with NBC News to launch its own online news service, reported AP.
The company said that NBC is acquiring the 50 percent stake owned by Microsoft in the MSNBC website, with the latter re-branded as NBCNews.com, and relocating its headquarters to NBC News' home in New York from Microsoft's corporate campus in Redmond, Wash.
The software maker will recruit its own news staff to supply material to its website, with the number of the news staff around 100 people.
Initially, Microsoft invested USD220 million in the MSNBC joint venture, and in 2005, the firm sold its stake in MSNBC's cable TV channel to NBC.
It is worth noting that MSNBC.com and its affiliated sites recorded around 50 million visitors in June, a gain of 5 percent from 2011, according to comScore Inc, the research firm.
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