Disney Sells A+E Stake to Hearst for Over $1B

Walt Disney is selling its 50% stake in A+E Global Media to Hearst for more than $1 billion. The sale will give Hearst full ownership of cable TV networks including A&E Network, History Channel, Lifetime, and Vice TV.

The deal is expected to be finalized at the same time as Disney's quarterly earnings release on August 5. This move has analysts wondering if there could be more changes in store for Disney under its new CEO Josh D'Amaro.

Media analyst Richard Greenfield believes that Disney might be following in the footsteps of Comcast Corp, which recently spun off NBCUniversal and a group of cable TV networks into separate publicly traded companies. Greenfield thinks it's possible that Disney could completely exit linear TV.