Disney paying additional $438.7M to buy out NBCUniversals Hulu stake

Walt Disney said Monday it has completed its purchase of Hulu, agreeing to pay NBCUniversal an additional $438.7 million for its stake in the streaming service.The transaction gives Disney complete ownership of Hulu, clearing the way for a deeper integration with the Disney+ streaming service, and ESPN’s coming direct-to-consumer offering, CEO Bob Iger said in a statement.Comcast agreed to sell Disney its 33% stake in Hulu in 2019, after the Burbank entertainment conglomerate acquired a majority stake the streaming service as part of its $71 billion takeover of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets.The agreement established a $27.5 billion floor valuation for Hulu, and set a process for arriving at a fair-market value that involved a third party appraisal that arrived at a final valuation.Hulu, which boasts popular original titles such as “The Bear” and “Only Murders in the Building,” had 54.7 million subscribers at the end of Disney’s second quarter.“Hulu was a great start for us in streaming that generated nearly $10 billion in proceeds for Comcast and created an important audience for NBCUniversal’s world-class content,” Comcast said in a statement....