{"id":22682,"date":"2026-07-31T03:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T22:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=22682"},"modified":"2026-07-31T03:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T22:24:11","slug":"disney-to-sell-50-stake-in-ae-to-hearst-for-more-than-1-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=22682","title":{"rendered":"Disney to Sell 50% Stake in A+E to Hearst for More Than $1 Billion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/disney\/\" id=\"auto-tag_disney\" data-tag=\"disney\">Disney<\/a> is getting ready to shed its ownership stake in <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/ae-global-media\/\" id=\"auto-tag_ae-global-media\" data-tag=\"ae-global-media\">A+E Global Media<\/a>, the cable-focused programmer it has owned jointly with <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/hearst\/\" id=\"auto-tag_hearst\" data-tag=\"hearst\">Hearst<\/a> for more than a decade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDisney will sell its 50% stake in A+E Global Media (<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/tv\/news\/ae-global-media-tv-upfront-corporate-name-1236327823\/\">formerly known as A+E Networks<\/a>) to Hearst, in a transaction valued at over $1 billion, a source familiar with the plans confirmed. The sale, giving Hearst 100% control over A+E going forward, is expected to be finalized next week and announced in conjunction with Disney\u2019s quarterly earnings on Aug. 5.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tReps for Hearst, Disney and A+E did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn a <a href=\"https:\/\/lightshedtmt.com\/2026\/07\/30\/josh-damaros-first-big-move-is-coming-plus-9-questions-for-disneys-fiscal-q326-earnings\/\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">blog post<\/a> Thursday, LightShed Partners analyst Rich Greenfield, in a preview of Disney earnings, wrote, \u201cWe believe Disney will announce the sale of its 50% stake in A&amp;E Networks to its joint venture partner, Hearst, in an all-cash transaction at a low single-digit EBITDA multiple.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDisney, in its 10-Q for the March 2026 quarter, said its investment in A+E has a carrying value of approximately $2 billion. During the quarter, it took a $147 million charge for an impairment of its investment in A+E Global Media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDisney has been <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/tv\/news\/ae-lifetime-history-cable-sale-disney-hearst-1236449196\/\">looking to sell its stake in A+E for at least a year<\/a>. After Disney exits the joint venture, A+E Global Media president and chairman Paul Buccieri will continue to run the company, reporting to Hearst CEO Steve Swartz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tA+E\u2019s cable networks include A&amp;E Network, Lifetime, History, Lifetime Movie Network, FYI and Vice TV. Its assets also encompass content units A+E Studios, A+E Factual Studio, A&amp;E IndieFilms, A+E Global Media Digital as well as streaming apps including subscription-video services including Lifetime Movie Club,  Crime 360 and History Vault.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn 2009, A&amp;E Television Networks \u2014 then a partnership among Disney-ABC Television Group,\u00a0Hearst\u00a0and NBCUniversal \u2014 acquired Lifetime Entertainment Services. In 2012, NBCU sold its 15.8% stake in A&amp;E Networks to Disney and Hearst.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Disney is getting ready to shed its ownership stake in A+E Global Media, the cable-focused programmer it has owned jointly with Hearst for more than a decade. Disney will sell its 50% stake in A+E Global Media (formerly known as A+E Networks) to Hearst, in a transaction valued at over $1 billion, a source familiar&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AE-Global-Media.png?w=945&h=563&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}