In Ever since the popular online television site, Hulu, placed the for sale sign on its front yard, suitors have been lining up. The latest of corporate bigwigs to show interest is Google. Earlier Yahoo was said to be in talks with Hulu. Microsoft is also known to have evinced some interest. But it is still not clear how much the current owners of Hulu - News Corp., Walt Disney Co., NBC Universal parent Comcast Corp. and Providence Equity wish to have for their stake in the company.
The interest evinced by Google is particularly ironic, because at the time when Hulu was launched, in 2007, some Google employees had openly mocked the service in their blogs and called it a Clown Company. Google was forced to stop laughing, once Hulu started drawing large number of audiences and got rave reviews from analysts. It makes sense for Google to acquire Hulu, because Hulu possesses something that YouTube lacks rights to full-length TV shows.
Backed by media companies that are producers of popular TV shows and movies, Hulu has a large library of shows and a smattering of feature films. However, the long-term prospects of Hulu are not clear, as the company is still trying to discover a winning business model.
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