Hulu has repurchased AT&T's 9.5% stake in the business for $1.43B, giving Hulu a valuation of $15B; Disney said in November that Hulu was worth $9.26B
- Hulu bought back AT&T's 9.5 percent stake in the entity for $1.43 billion, valuing the streaming company at $15 billion.
Context & Ripple Effects
Hulu's cap table has been unwinding one legacy media parent at a time. After early talks valued Hulu at $5B-$6B, Time Warner paid $580M for 10% in 2016 to back the new pay-TV service — and now AT&T has exited entirely, selling its 9.5% back to Hulu for $1.43B.
The price is the story: $15B implied valuation versus the $9.26B Disney itself assigned Hulu just five months earlier, even as an SEC filing showed Disney absorbing $580M in losses tied to its Hulu stake in fiscal 2018. Ownership is concentrating around the two parents still committed to streaming.
First-order effects
- AT&T converts a minority JV position into $1.43B of cash and walks away from Hulu entirely, while Disney's and NBCU's existing stakes each represent a larger share of a smaller cap table.
Second-order effects
- The $15B mark replaces Disney's $9.26B figure as the live reference price for Hulu equity — raising the cost of the endgame where Disney buys out NBCU's 33%, which it ultimately did at a $27.5B guaranteed floor agreed in 2023 before closing with an extra $439M payment in 2025.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, cable-era streaming joint ventures resolve by consolidation rather than IPO: minority parents exit at escalating marks while the strategic owner pays up for full control, making each buyout more expensive than the last.
The trend: Legacy-media streaming JVs like Hulu are being unwound through staged buyouts, with valuations ratcheting upward as the surviving parent moves toward full ownership.