Providence Equity Partners Inc. will sell off their 10% share in Hulu to Walt Disney Co., Comcast Corp, and News Corp for about $200 million, according to an article from Bloomberg. The online streaming TV show and movie service currently has about 2 million subscribers that pay $7.99 a month for unlimited usage (the same Netflix charges). With that many subscribers, why sell of shares of a growing company? And, if content creators such as Disney and News Corp (20th Century Fox) can distribute their own content digitally, one might ask why the need for a middle man like Netflix? We don’t know the details, however, an analyst indicated that Hulu is more of a long term investment that might not be suitable for Providence. Providence Equity Partners Inc., based in Rhode Island, initially invested $100 million into the joint-owned company in 2007. Currently, Disney, News Corp. and NBC Universal hold about 27% of shares each, with company employees holding about 10%.
Via Bloomberg
