The signaling is seen at the reception of the 2019 Hulu contenders in the Paramount Theater in the Paramount Studios lot on April 7, 2019 in Hollywood, California.
Rachel Murray | Getty images
Disney He has agreed to pay Comcast $ 438.7 million for its participation in the Hulu Transmission Service, concluding a process evaluation process.
In 2023, Disney announced that he intended to buy the 33% participation of Comcast in Hulu. At that time, Disney paid $ 8.6 billion, which reflected the minimum guaranteed Hulu value of $ 27.5 billion. The two companies had agreed that floor in 2019.
Disney's announcement was not so surprising, since CNBC and others informed him widely that Disney was looking to have a total Hulu property. Disney took two thirds of Hulu's property when he acquired Fox Corp entertainment assets.
After that initial payment, Disney and Comcast entered an evaluation process that was originally expected to end in 2024.
Disney said his appraiser had reached an assessment below the guaranteed floor, while Comcast Nbcuniversal appraiser “reached a substantially higher valuation to the guaranteed floor value.” A third appraiser concluded the process on Monday, according to a presentation of the SEC.
The final transaction is expected to close on July 24 or before. Disney will register the payment in its “net income attributable to non -controlling interests”, which will then reduce the “net income attributable to Disney” in its statement of the Third Quarter. Disney's previous guide for adjusted profits of fiscal year 2025 is not expected to affect the prior guide of the fiscal year 2025.
“We are pleased that this is finally resolved. We have had a productive association with NBCuniversal, and we wish you the best of luck,” said Disney CEO, Bob Iger, in a statement.
Iger added that the acquisition completed paves the way for “a deeper and more perfect integration” of Hulu and Disney+ Content, as well as the next direct ESPN transmission application to the consumer, called ESPN.
Disney has already begun to integrate the two existing services, which are also offered together in a package with ESPN+, the current sports transmission offer.
Nbcuniversal de Comcast has focused on building its transmission service, Peacock, since it was launched in 2020.
“Hulu was a great start to us in the transmission that generated almost $ 10 billion in profits for Comcast and created an important audience for world -class content of NBCuniversal,” said a Comcast spokesman in a statement on Monday. “We wish Disney the best of Hulu and appreciate the way our teams managed the association.”
Hulu had more than 50 million subscribers as of March 29, according to Disney's most recent profit report. In total, Disney had 180.7 million transmission subscribers, whose varieties come from Disney+. Comcast reported in April that Peacock had 41 million subscribers.
Disclosure: Comcast has NBCuniversal, the CNBC parent company.
