Yahoo Places Bid For Hulu: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Yahoo made major headlines this past week when the company announced that it bought Tumblr, the popular microblogging platform, for an astounding $1.1 billion. But, it seems like Yahoo’s acquisition spree isn’t close to being over.

1. Yahoo has Placed a Bid for Hulu

AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka reported that Yahoo has submitted a bid to acquire Hulu, the streaming video service. Here’s what they said:

Add one more name to Hulu bidding derby: Yahoo, which just announced plans to buy Tumblr for $1.1 billion, has made an offer on the video Web site as well. The Web giant submitted a bid for the video site this morning, according to a person familiar with process.

2. A “Potential Second Acquisition” Was Mentioned When the Tumblr Rumors Came Out

Yahoo has been apparently prepping two big acquisitions for quite some time. Forbes wrote back in March (in an article titled “Don’t Expect Any Big Yahoo Acquisitions,” which is obviously funny in retrospect), that there were rumors Yahoo wanted to acquire two major companies. Obviously the first one was Tumblr. It looks like the other may be Hulu.

3. Yahoo Is on an Acquisition Rampage

As we’ve mentioned before, Yahoo has been on an acquisition rampage. They’ve already quadrupled the number of acquisitions they’ve made in 2012. Not only that, but Yahoo has been spending billions on these companies as well, all in an effort to be “cool” (Yahoo’s popular with older people, Tumblr users are genrally pretty young).

4. Yahoo’s Running Out Of Money

According to their recent SEC filing, Yahoo only has about 1.1 billion in cash. They’ve been buying up startups left and right, and have spent a billion since January 1st. But, since they just purchased Tumblr for $1.1 billion, how much money can they spend on Hulu? It’s hard to say. They have a ton of assets — totalling to 16 billion — so, if they want to make an all-cash purchase for Hulu, like they did with Tumblr, Yahoo will need to sell off some profitable assets.

5. There Are A Ton of Other Bidders Too

AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka says that there are a bunch of other companies and private firms interested in Hulu too. Some potential bidders include:

Directv,
Time Warner Cable
William Morris Endeavor, along with with PE backer Silverlake
KKR
Guggenheim Digital
The Chernin Group

Additionally, Google and Amazon have reported been interested in Hulu for quite some time as well.