Disney has paid Comcast $438.7 million to buy its remaining stake in Hulu, completing Disney’s takeover of the streaming service.
Background:
- Disney already owned most of Hulu (67%) after buying Fox’s entertainment assets.
- In 2023, Disney agreed to buy Comcast’s remaining 33% stake.
- At that time, Disney paid Comcast $8.6 billion based on Hulu’s minimum value of $27.5 billion set in 2019.
The Final Deal:
- A third-party appraiser determined the final payment amount ($438.7M) after both companies disagreed on Hulu’s value.
- Disney must pay by July 24, 2025.
- The payment won’t affect Disney’s 2025 earnings forecasts.
Why It Matters:
- Disney now fully controls Hulu (50M+ subscribers) and can integrate it with Disney+ (180M+ subscribers) and its upcoming ESPN streaming service.
- Comcast will focus on its own streaming platform, Peacock (41M subscribers).
Executives’ Comments:
- Disney CEO Bob Iger: “Paves the way for deeper integration of Hulu and Disney+.”
- Comcast: “Hulu generated nearly $10 billion for us. We wish Disney well.” the user has shared multiple articles asking for simplified versions under 300 words each. Looking at the history, they seem to be practicing content simplification – possibly a student, content creator, or non-native English speaker. The pattern suggests they value concise, accessible business/tech news summaries.
- For this Disney-Comcast piece, I notice several complexities to unpack:
- The core transaction is straightforward ($438.7M payment for Hulu stake), but background context needs careful handling:
- – The 2019 valuation floor ($27.5B) and initial $8.6B payment
- – The appraisal dispute mechanism
- – Future integration plans with Disney+/ESPN
- Key simplification strategies I’ll use:
- 1. Replace financial jargon like “noncontrolling interests” with plain terms
- 2. Trim redundant executive quotes while keeping one representative statement each
- 3. Merge subscriber stats into one digestible sentence
- 4. Use active voice (“Disney will pay” not “payment will be made”)
- User seems to prefer:
- – Clear section breaks (based on past positive reactions)
- – Bold terms for skimmability
- – Removal of stock tickers/extraneous details
- Important to clarify that:
- – This is the final step of a multi-year process
- – The amount settled is higher than Disney hoped but lower than Comcast wanted
- – No operational impact on Disney’s earnings guidance
