Disney said in a securities filing on Monday that it had agreed to pay Comcast an additional $439 million for full control of the streaming service, ending a year and a half dispute over the amount. Disney had argued that it owed Comcast nothing beyond the $8.6 billion it already paid for Comcast’s 33 percent stake — and Comcast countered that Disney owed another $5 billion. Eventually, a third-party appraiser was brought in.
Source: Disney Takes Full Control of Hulu for Billions Less Than Comcast Wanted
HarbourView Equity Partners has secured $500 million in additional debt financing from investment giant KKR, secured via a private securitization backed by its music portfolio. This latest transaction follows a previous $500 million in debt financing secured by HarbourView in March 2024, through a private securitization backed by its catalog of music royalties, and led by KKR.
Audiobook sales returned to a double-digit growth rate in 2024, increasing 13% over 2023, according to the just-released Audio Publishers Association Sales Survey. After a number of years of sales growing at a rate of at least 10% annually, sales rose 9% in 2023. Last year, total sales from the APA members who supply data increased to $2.22 billion; the bump was driven, unsurprisingly, by digital audio.
Rezonate Music Rights has launched with $150 million in backing from Bridgepoint Credit to acquire music producer royalty rights globally. The London-based investment platform was co-founded by Cam Blackwood, the producer behind albums by artists George Ezra, Tom Walker, and Jack Savoretti, and Tom Tyler, who has over 20 years of experience in senior financial roles at the London Stock Exchange Group.
The combined value of the transactions is believed to be upwards of $25 million. Round Hill said on Thursday (May 29) that these transactions bring its total catalog value under management back to over USD $1 billion ($1.1bn), following the $468.8 million sale of its London Stock Exchange-listed fund to Concord in 2023. Round Hill continues to manage five private funds following the sale of the UK-listed fund.
The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon for use in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence platforms, the company said on Thursday. Amazon’s use of editorial content from The Times could extend to the Alexa software found on its smart speakers. Material from The Times will also be used to train Amazon’s proprietary A.I. models, the company said.