ValueVision Hires Banc of America to Seek Ways to Invest Cash

ValueVision Hires Banc of America to Seek Ways to Invest Cash
Minneapolis, Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- ValueVision International
Inc., owner of the No. 3 home-shopping television network, said
it hired Banc of America Securities to explore ways to invest its
cash.

The company has said it plans to use a large portion of its
$300 million in available cash for strategic investments,
especially in Internet companies.

ValueVision is revamping its network and Internet strategy
as part of an alliance reached in September with NBC's Internet
business. As part of that partnership, ValueVision will change
the names of its network and Web site to SnapTV and SnapTV.com
and will broaden its product mix.
``These moves require large, strategic investments,' said
Gene McCaffery, ValueVision's chairman. The company is investing
in Internet companies, ``principally those who sell product,
which through increased brand exposure, would be beneficial to
our TV programming sales.'

ValueVision, which is about 40 percent-owned by NBC, a unit
of General Electric Co., and GE Equity, reached about 31 million
homes as of the end of October.

The company is partnering with NBC Internet Inc., which was
formed by the combination of several NBC online businesses with
Xoom.com and Snap.com. The company began trading publicly as NBCi
for the first time yesterday.