Apple May Put in a Bid to Acquire Hulu

[Wiley John Wright]

A new report coming out of Bloomberg indicates that Apple may be interested in putting in a bid to acquire streaming video giant Hulu, according to two people who have knowledge of the deal.

According to Bloomberg, “Apple, the world’s second-most valuable company, is in early talks that may lead to an offer for Hulu, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly.”

Apple currently has $76.2 billion in cash and securities. Acquiring Hulu would hardly put a dent in Apple’s cash reserves and it would give them a new source of video content to offer their customers.

Apple currently sells and rents movies and television programming through iTunes. By acquiring a video streaming service that brings in revenue through advertising, Apple could broaden its offerings and bring in customers who have previously been unwilling to buy content through iTunes. If Apple does purchase Hulu, it would be a real challenge to Netflix video streaming dominance.

“Hulu would give Apple a new subscription service and represent a possible challenge to Netflix Inc. (NFLX) Hulu’s media- company owners, Walt Disney Co. (DIS), News Corp. (NWSA) and Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)’s NBC Universal, are offering suitors a five-year extension of program rights, including two years of exclusive access, people familiar with the matter said earlier this week.” Steve Jobs is on the board of directors at Disney and is the single largest shareholder with about 7% of the company’s stock.

Hulu’s owners put it up for sale last month when it was learned that there was a potential buyer interested in purchasing the company. There seems to be quite a bit of interest in Hulu at the moment as Google, Yahoo, AT&T and Microsoft have all shown interest in acquiring the company. Microsoft, however, has apparently dropped out of the bidding.

Recently a proposal from Yahoo “would pay up to $2 billion for Hulu with four or five years of exclusive access to current TV shows and older movies.” Apparently, Hulu has rejected this proposal.

Roku recently unveiled the Roku 2, a dedicated Netflix streamer with approximately 200 channels of content to choose from. If Apple hopes to keep up, then they need to offer more content to Apple TV users quickly. If Apple does bring Hulu into the fold, then this could bring a great deal of programming to the Apple TV. Hopefully, this rumor will eventually come true.

Source: Bloomberg

[fatalcrixer]

Anyone else notice the recent buyouts in the last 5 years have went through the roof?

[z6joker9]

Anyone else notice the recent buyouts in the last 5 years have went through the roof?

During times of growth, you'll see a ton of new companies. When times go lean, you see a lot of companies condensing as they gobble each other up. That's pretty much the short of it.

[whereswaldo]

the real question is: Will it be iHulu or iLu?

[RICO_]

Great....just what we need.....an over-priced web streaming service from Apple for the exact same content.

[Cer0]

Or Apple will kill it off totally like some of thier other buyouts.

[vantheman169]

i hope this is not true. i like not paying for Hulu and Apple is about nothing free....

[Goof]

I doubt that Apple would make to many changes to Hulu, maybe just add some integration with iTunes. For instance your watching a video on Hulu, there might be a "Buy on iTunes" button.

I think this might be a good thing. We might finally see Hulu Plus on Apple TV.

[andypropaganda]

i hope this is not true. i like not paying for Hulu and Apple is about nothing free....

Plenty of content on Hulu is now part of Hulu Plus. In my recent experience, most of it is. So it really would be much of a difference.

[NSXrebel]

i hope this is not true. i like not paying for Hulu and Apple is about nothing free....

Get outta here, there's plenty of free content in iTunes.

[boxxa]

I don't see this going well. I love Hulu minus the ads and device restrictions on their Hulu+. I dont want Apple seeing them as a competitor to iTunes episode downloads and either F them up or close it down.

[feidhlim1986]

Apples answer to competition these days is just buy them and close them

[maboroshi]

this is gonna be lala.com all over again.

dammit apple, stop buying up awesome services and shutting them down so you can rule with your watered-down versions if them!

[brianiino]

Dude. I have a Apple TV and this is exactly what Ive been waiting for. The day we get Hulu on Apple TV is the day I cancel my cable.

[fatalcrixer]

Dude. I have a Apple TV and this is exactly what Ive been waiting for. The day we get Hulu on Apple TV is the day I cancel my cable.

I have had my roku for over a year now and have been enjoying no cable services since. Also Apple tv is only 720 with no access to hook up an external hard drive like roku to watch your media from home

[sziklassy]

Great. Another service that I enjoy that Apple will acquite and shut down...