The unknown prospective buyer of Hulu may have been Yahoo. A scoop late Tuesday said that the early search firm, at least at one point in recent memory, had raised the possibility of buying Hulu.
Hulu, founded in 2008, is co-owned by News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox, Comcast (CMCSA, Fortune 500), Walt Disney Co.’s (DIS, Fortune 500) ABC and private equity firm Providence Equity Partners.
Look at the ownership of hulu. Major broadcasting companies and they are the one who decides whether to charge $$$ on the license. What if after Yahoo buys hulu and then the content providers up the license fee greatly. Yahoo can not sustain the hulu and shut down the site eventually.
If a buyout is in the works, it could be a comparatively easy exit strategy for Hulu and its diverse collection of owners. Hulu reportedly abandoned its plans for an IPO last year because it wasn’t able to secure long-term deals with content providers.
The whole reason for hulu to sell is that they are not sure about the long-term deals.
So it’s bad move by yahoo if they buy it unless they secure long-term deals. I mean *long-term* deal. However, even if they get the long-term deals, look at what happened to yahoo music streaming service and yahoo tv listings. They are already gone because of license issue. They should’ve learned the lessons already.