NEWS: Disney To Acquire Comcast’s Hulu Shares in $8.61 BILLION Deal

The Walt Disney Company is on the move again.

Cinderella Castle

With stock decreasing more and more each day Disney continues to look for new and improved plans and measures to drive the momentum in the opposite direction. Now, we have just learned of a new objective for the corporate mogul.

The Walt Disney Company has just announced its plan to purchase the remaining 33% stake in Hulu, acquiring a full stake from current partner Comcast Corp.’s NBC Universal (NBCU).

©Hulu

This announcement comes after Comcast’s November 1st exercise of its rights per the put/call arrangement between itself and Disney. Disney will purchase the streaming platform at fair market value adding another full streaming service to its repertoire.

©Disney | Walt Disney Studios

So what is “fair market value” for a major streaming service such as Hulu? That would be at least $27.5 billion (the guaranteed floor value agreed upon by the two companies in 2019). To gain full ownership of the streaming platform Disney will be paying 33% of that value, approximately $8.61 billion.

©Comcast

Of course, there is an appraisal process to be completed which will define the equity fair value of the service now in 2023. If that value is found to be higher than $27.5 billion, then Disney will pay NBCU the percentage difference between the equity fair value and the guaranteed floor value.

If this sounds confusing to you, then just note that Disney will not be paying less than $8.61 billion to completely acquire Hulu. Hulu will join Disney+ as the Walt Disney Company’s second streaming service.

©Disney

This process and complete acquisition will most likely be completed during the 2024 calendar year. It is a quite the process to purchase massive streaming websites when you’re tossing around numbers with the word billion in them.

We’ll keep you updated as this purchase goes into the new year. In the meantime, keep following All Ears!