The Walt Disney Co. said it will acquire the 33% of Hulu owned by Comcast’s NBCUniversal unit.
Disney and Comcast had an arrangement in which Comcast could force Disney to buy the stake, and Comcast exercised that right on Wednesday, Disney said.
Under terms of the agreement, Disney said it expects to pay NBCU a floor price of about $8.61 billion for the 33% stake in Hulu.
The price may change as the value of Hulu is being appraised under terms of the two companies’ agreement. If the value is higher than $27.5 billion, Disney will pay Comcast the difference between the floor value of the stake and its fair-market value.
Disney said it expects the appraisal process will be completed during the 2024 calendar year.
The acquisition of full ownership of Hulu “will further strengthen Disney’s streaming objectives,” Disney said.
Disney has been in control of Hulu since it acquired most of the assets of 21st Century Fox in 2019 for $71.4 billion in stock.
Since then, Disney and Comcast have feuded about Hulu’s strategy and value and there was some question about whether Disney would want to buy the remaining or if somehow Comcast would wind up with Hulu.
More recently, Disney has taken steps to include a Hulu section on its Disney Plus streaming service.
Hulu was started in 2008 by Fox, Disney, NBCUniversal and Time Warner as a streaming service to rival the upstart Netflix.
