Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger said he is not committed to buying Comcast Corp.’s stake in Hulu, throwing into question the future ownership of the streaming service as the two media giants approach a deadline for a deal.
(Bloomberg) — Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger said he is not committed to buying Comcast Corp.’s stake in Hulu, throwing into question the future ownership of the streaming service as the two media giants approach a deadline for a deal.
Disney owns two thirds of the streaming service, while Comcast owns the remaining third. The two companies have an agreement for Disney to acquire Comcast’s stake next year under terms that value the whole business at a minimum of $27.5 billion.
In an interview on CNBC Thursday, Iger called Hulu a “very successful platform” and a “good consumer proposition” but said “everything is on the table right now.”
“I’m not going to speculate on whether we’re a buyer or a seller of it,” he said, adding that he’s “concerned” that general entertainment programming is “undifferentiated.”
Asked if he could sell Disney’s stake in Hulu to Comcast, Iger said “we will be open-minded.” Any assumption that Disney will buy Comcast’s stake “isn’t necessarily the case,” he said.
Iger’s comments came less than a day after he announced plans for a dramatic restructuring of the world’s largest entertainment company, including 7,000 job cuts and $5.5 billion in cost savings.
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