Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Disney is buying up Comcast’s stake in Hulu. The entertainment giant announced Wednesday that it “expects it will pay” $8.61 billion to acquire Comcast’s 33 percent stake, giving Disney full ownership of Hulu.
In 2019, Disney made a deal with Comcast to buy its one-third stake in Hulu. The deal was initially set to take place in 2024, but Comcast and Disney agreed to move up the date to September 30th.
At the time, the two companies agreed upon a minimum valuation of $27.5 billion for Hulu. “That was just a hypothetical that we picked five years ago,” said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts during an investors conference in September. “The company is way more valuable today than it was then.”
With Hulu barely seeing a shift in subscribers last…
