While many pundits on Wall Street have been confident that Disney would buy the portion of Hulu it doesn’t already own, CEO Bob Iger says it’s possible the company could end up selling its interest instead.
In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Iger said “Hulu is a very successful platform and a good consumer proposition. Everything’s on the table right now. I’m not going to say we’re a buyer or a seller.”
When pressed by David Faber that the Street’s expectation was that Disney would buy the remaining Hulu stake, Iger said: “I’m suggesting that isn’t necessarily the case.”
Disney controls a majority stake in Hulu and has made it a key part of its streaming operations. The company currently offers a bundle that includes the service with ESPN+ and Disney+. Should Disney sell its interest, it’s unclear how that would impact consumers.
Disney was an initial partner in the streaming network and increased its stake when it acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019 and struck a deal with AT&T, which had bought other founding partner Time Warner the year prior.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, the company reported that Hulu had 47.2 million paid subscribers.
The Hulu comments follow an announcement Wednesday that Disney planned to cut $5.5 billion in costs. It has vowed to make Disney+ profitable by the end of 2024, and Iger said the company planned to more carefully choose which shows it will produce moving forward.
“We have to look really hard at how much we’ve made and what has worked,” he said. “We have to be more discerning in terms of what we say yes to.”
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