Today Comcast has agreed to sell its ownership stake in Hulu to Disney. While sale won’t happen for at least another five years, Disney will take full operational control of Hulu going forward now.
Hulu was at one time a joint venture between Disney, 21st Century Fox (Which both Comcast and Disney tried to acquire) , NBC (Later NBCUniversal When GE sold the network to Comcast) and Time Warner (now WarnerMedia). No firm at the beginning had majority control.
The house of mouse became the majority holder in the streaming video service after it closed a deal for most of Fox’s assets (Which both Comcast and Disney tried to acquire) last March. Last month, WarnerMedia sold its 9.5% interest back to Hulu. Comcast has owned about a third of Hulu.
Again the deal will not close earlier that 2024. Disney has guaranteed that the sale price of Hulu for Comcast will reflect a minimum total equity value of $27.5 billion.
