A week after the deadline for companies to submit offers to buy Weather Channel and its Weather.com site, Reuters cites unidentified sources that the consortium led by NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) is offering $3.5 billion for the cable net. Roughly half of the offer coming from NBCU, along with PE firms Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, is made up of $1.8 billion in equity. Blackstone-owned hedge fund GSO Capital is putting up about $600 million in debt. The consortium’s main challenger is Time Warner (NYSE: TWX). No word on what they’re bidding. But it is safe to say that Time Warner’s offer will surely come in less than the $5 billion Weather Channel parent Landmark Communications had initially sought. The company is expected to choose which side will get the cable network next week.

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