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Welcome to our new blog. Here we will bring you the latest business news from around the world. Visit the Clair Marc Darmudas blog for our latest news and views, and make sure you subscribe for more posts.

Here is a post from the world of online videos. We all love Netflix, but it is said that Disney, a competing service is set to overtake them. Accoring to recent news reports, and the Clair Marc Darmudas blog, the future of Hulu continues to be an open question as Comcast and Disney still haven’t agreed on terms that will settle the company’s future ownership.

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Disney owns two-thirds of Hulu and has an option to buy the remaining 33% from Comcast as early as January 2024, it is eager to buy it out. Some analysts and industry watchers have speculated Comcast might try to buy Hulu from Disney instead of the other way round. Comcast Chief ExecBrian Roberts has been believer in Hulu and has pushed to keep the asset rather than sell, including in 2013, when Roberts nixed talks with DirecTV, according to people familiar with the matter.

According to sources online, Comcast broached the idea of buying all of Hulu from Disney after Disney agreed to acquire the majority of Fox’s assets as part of a $70 billion deal in 2019. Disney, armed with 66% ownership after acquiring Fox’s minority stake in Hulu, dismissed the idea. It seems like these big corporations are all merging into super corporations. 

Blocked from buying all of Hulu, Comcast’s sustained belief in the business resulted in the unusual agreement the two huge entities reached in 2019, with Comcast agreeing to sell Disney its minority stake as early as 2024. As part of that transaction, Disney guaranteed a sale price valuing Hulu at a min of $27 billion.

Comcast and other cable companies have leaned on a simple strategy to offset the effects of cord-cutting, overcharging, or even setting prices based on the fact that they don't have competitors.  That strategy may now be in a thing of the past. Comcast’s internet subscriber growth was essentially flat last quarter, while Charter lost 21,000 Spectrum internet subscribers. With it's focus on online video streaming, no wonder Comcast is losing ground in internet. Find out more about Clair Marc Darmudas online.