Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) has offered to acquire video website Hulu, technology blog AllThings Digital said Friday, adding up to the list of bidders in the fray. The value of Yahoo!'s offer was not revealed.
Among those reportedly vying to acquire all or a part of Hulu include Directv (DTV), Time Warner Cable (TWC), Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Guggenheim Digital, The Chernin Group, as well as a joint bid from Silver Lake Management LLC and William Morris Endeavor Entertainment LLC.
Hulu is owned by media giants News Corp. (NWS, NWSA), The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) and Comcast Corp. (CMCSA). A five year-old video service, Hulu offers ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from a host of networks and studios. Last year, Hulu, which has about 4 million users, recorded revenues of around $700 million.
In 2011, Hulu was put up for sale, with an expected minimum bid of $2 billion, but its owners subsequently retracted.
Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer has been beefing up her company's mobile and online products. Yahoo! recently revealed plans to buy social media network Tumblr for $1.1 billion. It earlier made an unsuccessful bid to acquire a stake in French video site DailyMotion.
Yahoo! stock closed Friday at $26.33, up $0.31 or 1.19%, on a volume of about 15 million shares on the Nasdaq. In after hours, the stock gained $0.02 or 0.08%.
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