An auction for Hulu has yielded offers from a variety of bidders including DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), the Chernin Group, KKR & Co. and Yahoo as well as a joint bid from Silver Lake Management and William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, according to reports in Bloomberg, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal.
The site, owned by Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS), News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA) and Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), has fetched bids as high as $830 million, according to a source familiar with the bidding. The auction process is expected to play out over coming weeks as bidders try to hammer out terms.
There's no guarantee they'll reach a deal. Hulu last tested the M&A market in 2011 and ended its sale process without finding a buyer. At the time, the company said the site was a unique and compelling strategic asset for each of its owners. The highest bid in that auction was said to be $1.9 billion.
This time around, the bids appear to be coming in even lower, but some buyers are reportedly open to purchasing a minority stake in the company.
For more:
- Bloomberg had this report
- the Wall Street Journal had this story (sub. req.)
- Reuters had this story
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