Melonius [he/him]

Just buy the corn syrup and iodized salt direct from the manufacturer and skip all these middle men.

Megathreads, or just a good popular post in related popular communities can work pretty well until there is enough traction to warrant its own community. A lot of subreddits arose because half the posts in a sub became what was previously a fringe topic of the parent.

Long term they may axe hulu but comcast still has an ownership interest. For now they have subscribers and show contracts that are probably limited to that platform. Let them expire, renew what’s earning, and write off any homegrown content for whatever % of goodwill of the acquisition price it accounts for. Most importantly though - they’ll continue to raise prices unabated.

I can’t predict the future but they’ll probably let hulu stagnate for the next few years and payoff remaining shareholders when its time to snuff it.

Can’t comment on Microsoft and Activision too much, but it will be the same drivers. Microsoft has been pushing game pass aggressively at a loss, and when companies are operating at a loss in a product segment they’re in the extend phase. They’re also very publicly focused on xbox market share. Maybe the next COD game will be gamepass exclusive or something dumb like that, idk.

Streaming could be a whole other post really. All these companies have bought into having their own app and they are all losing big time.

I’d be cautious jumping to that conclusion. Netflix, Disney, and Amazon are all extremely profitable. The news makes it sound like there’s blood in the street but its just that earnings aren’t growing exponentially as fast as before. The smaller ones might be having trouble competing but I haven’t really looked in to it.

By acquiring fox they have 60% ownership interest in Hulu. It’s that simple.

https://nypost.com/2023/08/09/hulu-and-disney-subscriptions-are-going-up-heres-how-much/

I’m sure the timing is coincidence and has nothing to do with Disney controlling the largest market share of streaming services.

Nearly every acquisition is about extinguishing competition and squeezing more juice from your core products. It’s why oil and gas buys green tech to toss it in the bin, it’s why Google buys waze and essentially halts development on it, it’s why Microsoft bought blizzard. They extract any value from what they bought but that is secondary to eliminating a company that they’d have to compete with on price.

https://dealroom.net/blog/biggest-m-a-deals-2022

Every coy news article that pretends there’s some sort of 3d chess going on or some big unknowable synergies is a joke. They’ll give the acquired divisions to some much more competent middle managers to see if there’s any value to extract, but it’s secondary to the main objective. Disney would much rather collaborate with n-1 competitors (Netflix is really it?)

The value of an acquisition is almost never about synergy, assets, tech, or the catalog you got out of it.

It’s usually about extinguishing competition and squeezing any remaining juice from your core offerings and products at a higher price.