Posted in: Movies, streaming, TV | Tagged: comcast, disney, hulu

Disney Finalizes Deal with Comcast to Buy Out NBCU's Stake in Hulu

Disney and Comcast have finalized the deal that will see "The Mouse" buying out NBCUniversal's remaining stake in Hulu by the end of July.

There are some things out there across the pop culture landscape that we just take for granted. For example, Disney owns Hulu. Except, it doesn't. Well, it didn't. Well, it won't until on or before July 24th, 2025. Less than two years after the news first hit that Disney had officially agreed to begin the process of buying out Comcast's (via NBCUniversal) 33% ownership stake in the streaming service, the endgame is finally in play. A deal between "The Mouse" and Comcast has been finalized, with the contractual appraisal agreement from today noting that Disney was to pay an additional $438.7 million to Comcast/NBCUniversal to finalize the purchase of the NBCU's interest in Hulu (with the deal set to close on or before July 24th, as we referenced earlier).

"The acquisition of Comcast's stake in Hulu at fair market value will further Disney's streaming objectives," said Disney in a statement in 2023, when "The Mouse" first made their intentions clear. "We are pleased this is finally resolved. We have had a productive partnership with NBCUniversal, and we wish them the best of luck," shared Disney CEO Bob Iger in a statement when the news was first released. "Completing the Hulu acquisition paves the way for a deeper and more seamless integration of Hulu's general entertainment content with Disney+ and, soon, with ESPN's direct-to-consumer product, providing an unrivaled value proposition for consumers."

The process to finalize Hulu's value saw each side hire an investment bank to determine the value of the streamer. If the two values were within 10% of each other, then the average of the two became Hulu's price tag. Otherwise, a third investment bank comes in to do its own assessment, with Hulu's final price tag being the average of the third investment bank's value and the original value that's closest to the third bank's value.

A spokesperson for Comcast had this to say about today's development: "Hulu was a great start for us in streaming that generated nearly $10 billion in proceeds for Comcast and created an important audience for NBCUniversal's world-class content. We wish Disney well with Hulu and appreciate the cooperative way our teams managed the partnership."

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