Yahoo's Bid for Hulu in $600M to $800M Range — Even as It Preps Other Big Deals in Mobile and Communications
Even as It Preps Other Big Deals in Mobile and Communications — According to numerous sources close to the situation, Yahoo has bid from $600 million to $800 million for the premium video site Hulu. — The reason for the wide range is due …
Context & Ripple Effects
Yahoo under Marissa Mayer is on an acquisition tear: the board approved the $1.1 billion all-cash Tumblr deal days ago, the company picked up gaming-infrastructure startup PlayerScale on May 23, and sources say bigger mobile and communications purchases are being prepped alongside this one. The Hulu bid fits a pattern of small-to-mid content buys — last November Yahoo was also among those weighing a roughly $20 million run at TVGuide.com.
Hulu itself is a repeat auction: Google held preliminary talks to buy the site back in July 2011, and a later round drew a top bid that was never converted into a sale. The reported $600 million to $800 million range — unusually wide for a single bid, per the report — suggests Yahoo is pricing around unresolved variables rather than a fixed valuation. Eight outlets including TechCrunch, CNET and The Verge picked up the story within a day, indicating how much attention any premium-video move by a rebuilding portal attracts.
First-order effects
- Yahoo becomes a live bidder for Hulu's premium-video library, giving Hulu's owners a credible offer at a scale that dwarfs the TVGuide.com price point Yahoo entertained just six months earlier.
- The simultaneous preparation of mobile and communications deals signals Mayer is willing to run multiple large negotiations at once, stretching Yahoo's deal team and capital across several fronts right after committing $1.1 billion in cash to Tumblr that analysts publicly argue will not move the needle.
Second-order effects
- Google, which explored buying Hulu in its 2011 sale process, faces a reinvigorated rival bidding for the same premium content — a direct contest over who controls licensed video distribution as portals try to rebuild audience.
- Content owners and studios supplying Hulu gain leverage either way: an active bidding process raises the perceived value of exclusive streaming rights across every suitor's negotiation.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, legacy web portals are repositioning as media companies — buying content libraries rather than building them — which would push valuations for premium streaming catalogs up industry-wide and make future Hulu-style auctions more frequent.
- A string of cash acquisitions on top of Tumblr also raises structural questions about whether serial M&A, versus product focus, becomes Mayer-era Yahoo's defining strategy — the variable investors will watch regardless of whether the Hulu bid lands.
The trend: Legacy consumer-internet portals are attempting to buy their way back to relevance through premium content and mobile acquisitions, turning scarce licensed-video catalogs into contested auction assets.