Disney will pay NBCUniversal an additional $438.7 million to purchase the company’s remaining stake in Hulu.
This news was revealed in an SEC filing on Monday as part of a contractual appraisal process. During Disney’s third fiscal quarter of 2025, the payment will be recorded in “net income attributable to noncontrolling interests.” It’s also expected that this amount will be excluded when Disney reports adjusted earnings per share.
The acquisition is expected to close on or before July 24.
“We are pleased this is finally resolved. We have had a productive partnership with NBCUniversal, and we wish them the best of luck,” Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, said in a statement. “Completing the Hulu acquisition paves the way for a deeper and more seamless integration of Hulu’s general entertainment content with Disney+ and, soon, with ESPN’s direct-to-consumer product, providing an unrivaled value proposition for consumers.”
“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. We wish Disney well with Hulu and appreciate the cooperative way our teams managed the partnership,” a representative for Comcast told TheWrap.
In November of 2023, NBCUniversal exercised its right to require Disney to purchase its stake in Hulu. Initially, Disney set a guaranteed floor value of $27.5 billion for the company’s 33% stake in the streamer and paid NBCU $8.6 billion — a payment that reflected the guaranteed floor value of Hulu minus NBCU’s unpaid capital call contributions. However, the two companies disagreed on Hulu’s fair value, forcing them to go into confidential arbitration, which started in May of 2024 with an expected resolution in 2025.
If the valuation of NBCU’s appraiser had been found to be accurate, approximately $5 billion would have been payable to NBCU. Similarly, if Disney’s appraisal was accurate, NBCU would have received no additional money. Instead, a third-party appraisal led to Disney paying NBCU the $438.7 million.
Once this final transaction is completed, Disney will fully own Hulu — in addition to Disney+, ESPN+ and the upcoming sports-centered streamer that will simply be known as ESPN.
