Yahoo Submits Bid to Acquire Hulu

Yahoo has reportedly submitted a bid to acquire Hulu, a popular site that streams TV shows and movies.

Yahoo has been actively sprucing up its services lately with acquisitions, including Summly and Tumblr, and product revamps, such as Yahoo Weather and Flickr.

According to AllThingsD, Yahoo submitted its bid of Hulu this morning. Other companies interested in buying Hulu include: Directv, Time Warner Cable, William Morris Endeavor, KKR, Guggenheim Digital, and The Chernin Group.


Last month, former News Corp. COO Peter Chernin submitted a starting bid of $500 million, with the understanding that he would be willing to pay more for extended licenses. Bloomberg first reported on the KKR and William Morris Endeavor/Silverlake bids today. Hulu hasn’t had a formal M&A process, but had asked prospective bidders to make an offer by Wednesday. That deadline apparently isn’t a firm one, so it’s worth wondering if the field will grow more crowded before this over.

Currently Hulu is owned by News Corp, Disney, and Comcast. It's unclear how much they want for Hulu; however, in 2011 they were looking for at least $2 billion. The real concern is the content licenses. Much of Hulu's content comes from its owners. Previously, the media conglomerates had offered content licenses that would run for two to three years.

Read More [via Tzvi]