NBCUniversal invests in tech site by Mossberg, Swisher

NBCUniversal has agreed to invest in a new technology news and conference company to be created by AllThingsD editors Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, according to Bloomberg News.

Mossberg and Swisher announced earlier this year that they will leave AllThingsD.com at the end of the year after they've failed to come to an agreement with AllThingsD's owner -- News Corp.'s Dow Jones -- to continue their news-and-conference operation.

Mossberg, who is currently a technology gadget reviewer at The Wall Street Journal, and Swisher, a former WSJ employee, will own a majority stake in the new venture, the report said, citing unnamed sources. NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast, and another unnamed investor will jointly own about a third.

Most of AllThingsD's current staff will join the new company, to be called Revere Digital.

Dow Jones hasn't specified what it plans to do with the AllThingsD brand, which began as a conference organizer in 2003 but was broadened to include a technology news website that is widely read in Silicon Valley. But Dow Jones plans to enhance technology news coverage by hiring more reporters and editors and start a conference business that will compete with Revere Digital.

According to the Bloomberg report, AllThingsD is a profitable unit of News Corp., generating about $14 million in annual sales and about $5.5 million in profit. The website generated about $3 million to $4 million in annual advertising sales, with most of the revenue tied to deals that run across News Corp.'s other sites, such as wsj.com, the report said.