Marissa Mayer promised not to screw up Tumblr after the microblogging site accepted Yahoo's $1.1 billion acquisition offer. Hopefully, the same guarantee will extend to Hulu, if the company's bid for the streaming service goes through.
Earlier reports indicated that bids for Hulu have been fielded from several potential buyers, including William Morris Endeavor (one of the largest talent agencies in the world), former News Corp chief Peter Chernin, DirecTV, Time Warner Cable and Guggenheim Digital Media.
Now, All Things D reports that Yahoo has thrown its hat in the ring, only days after purchasing Tumblr. All Things D also reported that Yahoo attempted recently to purchase a large interest in DailyMotion, but the French government rejected the offer.
It is worth noting that Hulu was previously up for sale in 2011, but the selloff did not attract any bids for the amount Hulu's owners were looking for - a figure reportedly in the $2 billion range. Since Hulu is owned by News Corp, Disney and Comcast, it can reasonably be inferred that the company is not cash-starved and doesn't have a compelling reason to settle for anything less than what its owners and shareholders are asking for.
Additionally, it's possible that Yahoo's bid will not be the last in an already crowded field of offers. Hulu had requested for prospective bidder to submit their offers by Wednesday, but given Yahoo's offer on Friday, it looks like the company is prepared to solicit additional bids if the number is right.
Regardless of who places the winning bid for Hulu, if anyone, it will be interesting to see what happens to the company under new ownership. While Hulu has proved to be a versatile and popular platform, the bulk of its value is in the content licenses associated with it and not the site itself.
Do you think Hulu would survive a transfer in ownership? Or will its content simply be folded into another service? Let us know in the comments.
