Disney will acquire the remaining 33% of Hulu shares and become the sole owner of the service. The price of the deal is $8.61 billion

Disney will acquire Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu and become the sole owner of the service. The deal is expected to be worth $8.61 billion, writes The Verge.

Disney acquired 60% of Hulu back in 2019, after acquiring 21st Century Fox. In the same year, due to the buyout of WarnerMedia shares, Disney with 67% of the shares and Comcast with 33% remained the two owners of Hulu. At the same time, an agreement was made that Disney would buy the remaining shares from Comcast by 2024. At the time, Hulu was valued at $27.5 billion, meaning that Comcast’s share was $9.075 billion. Now it is believed that the deal should be closed at the value of the shares as of September 30, 2023, i.e. at least for $8.61 billion. The final closing of the deal is scheduled for 2024.

As of June 2023. Hulu has 48.3 million subscribers, while Disney’s own streaming service, Disney+, has 146.1 million. But Hulu is growing in subscribers, while Disney+ is losing people.

Hulu was launched almost simultaneously with Netflix in 2007. Currently, Hulu programs include such popular shows as Futurama, The Handmaid’s Tale, American Horror Stories, Only Murders in the Building, Solar Opposites, The Kardashians, and others.