Yahoo among bidders for Hulu, as report says employees head for exits

Hulu appears to be hot property, as number of bidders grows

by Greg Sandoval

May 24, 2013, 7:04 PM UTC

NBC-tv-studio

Yahoo is among the growing number of media companies that have bid to acquire Hulu, the streaming video service owned by NBC Universal, Fox, and Disney, according to a report by All Things D.

The news site reported that the other bidders include DirecTV, Time Warner Cable, William Morris Endeavor, and Guggenheim Digital. Meanwhile, the New York Post reports that Hulu employees are beginning to depart. The Post said that Robert Wong, vice president of products, left this month to join SideCar.

Just this week came reports that Hulu's owners were taking control over much of Hulu's ad inventory Hulu is the service created by some of the top TV broadcasters in 2007 to answer the growing demand for online video. At a time when YouTube's user-generated videos ruled web video, Hulu was lauded for offering high quality TV shows over the internet. But the service has been hamstrung in recent years by the infighting among its owners and their seeming unwillingness to back the service. Just this week, Variety, the Hollywood trade publication, reported that Hulu's owners were taking control over much of Hulu's ad inventory.

In March, the much respected Jason Kilar, Hulu’s longtime CEO, resigned. It’s interesting to note that when Hulu first launched critics pointed out that joint ventures between competitors in the entertainment sector rarely were successful.

As for what kind of price Hulu might bring, the value is closely tied to the quality of the content licenses that Hulu’s owners offer. Potential buyers will want plenty of top shows for extended periods. Hulu was put up for sale in 2011 but was eventually pulled off the market.

Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.