Spendthrift Yahoo Now Turns Attention to Potential Hulu Acquisition

Don't accuse Yahoo of being afraid to spend, and spend big, on acquisitions it thinks will give it an edge against the competition. Enter into evidence exhibit A, Yahoo's recent $1.1 billion acquisition of blogging service Tumblr that has a few industry analysts scratching their heads. Now less than a week later Yahoo is reportedly setting its sights on Hulu (exhibit B).

According to a Reuters report, Yahoo submitted a formal proposal to acquire Hulu, an online streaming provider of movies and TV shows that's jointly owned by News Corp and Walt Disney Co. It's not clear how much Yahoo is offering, though for this to happen, it will have to beat out other bidders that include Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, and a few others.

Hulu

Citing un-named sources, Reuters says Hulu could be worth $1 billion to $2 billion, quite a bit more than the $500 million bid it's said to have received from Peter Chernin, the former president of News Corp. There are at least five bidders competing for Hulu, which generated revenues of $700 million last year.