Why September 30th Just Became an Important Day for Disney Fans

Things have gotten interesting with the Walt Disney Company lately.

Hi, Mickey!

Recently, we saw Disney’s stock prices drop lower than we’ve seen them in about 9 years, and at the Q3 earnings call for fiscal 2023, we learned that overall revenue isn’t as high as the company was hoping it would be when Bob Iger returned as CEO about a year ago. Earlier this year, we heard talk of Disney hoping to acquire more stakes in Hulu, which they already own about two-thirds of. Comcast owns the other third. Disney and Comcast signed an agreement to begin sale talks as early as 2024. Now, there’s been a change regarding the negotiation talk between Disney and Comcast.

According to Variety, Comcast and Disney signed a modification last week that would bring forward the sale talks for Comcast’s stake in Hulu. Now, the sale talks will begin on September 30th, 2023.

©Hulu

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said that synergies around Hulu could be worth $30 billion — before adding in the value that Hulu itself is worth. Roberts continued by saying that the minimum valuation for Hulu was marked at a “hypothetical” cost of $27.5 billion back when Disney had control of Hulu. Now, he says Hulu is way more valuable today than it was when the cost was set five years ago.

Disney World

Roberts also shared that “there’d be a line of bidders around the block to actually buy all the content, all the bundling of Hulu.” What’s interesting about all this is that after the Q3 earnings call, we learned that Disney failed to sustainably increase revenue even after Bob Iger returned as CEO last November. While there was an overall increase, it wasn’t as much as they’d hoped. There was talk about Disney potentially trying to sell linear network assets, and now Disney is proceeding with sale negotiations to purchase Hulu.

©Disney

So, we will see what happens on September 30th! We’ll continue to keep you updated with any and all news on the subject, so make sure to follow along for more so that you don’t miss anything.

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What do you think of Disney trying to acquire the remaining stakes in Hulu? Let us know in the comments!