• by Wayne Friedman , February 3, 2010

On Tuesday of this week, NBC brought together about 120 people from both companies who will be working on the transition of how the new NBC Universal would operate under the majority ownership of Comcast.

The transition refers to staffing and employee changes.

Jeff Zucker, president and chief executive officer of NBC Universal, said in a memo sent to employees on Feb. 3, which was obtained by MediaPost: "While we recognize that transactions create uncertainty, they also provide unique opportunities to rethink how we do business and how to win in the future."

Zucker said NBC was dividing the transition work into two teams: operations and administration. The operations group "will identify growth opportunities across both organizations, determine business priorities and focus, and ultimately recommend organizational structures."

The administrative team will focus on infrastructure: human resources, finance, IT, legal, real estate, and other areas. Zucker said NBC executive Salil Mehta will be working with Joe Donnelly from Comcast and lead the operations team. Bob Victor from Comcast, working with John Eck from NBC Universal, will lead the administration team.

NBC will be a separate company from Comcast after the merger is approved by federal regulatory agencies. Zucker said: "The Comcast programming, sports and digital assets will be fully integrated into the new NBC Universal and those employees will become part of this new content company."

He added that NBC expects the regulatory approval process to take nine to 12 months.

"During this time, both companies will be run as independent entities. Therefore, the implementation of our plans cannot start until the transaction closes. This creates uncertainty, but it also gives us time to get our planning right. Accordingly, we do not expect to begin making significant structural and post-close staffing decisions until summer at the earliest."