
Yahoo approaches Hulu about possible acquisition - varworld
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/06/hulu-receives-unsolicited-acquisition-offer.html
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billturner
This is really quite sad. In 1999, Yahoo bought the streaming media company
(not just video, but radio/sports/original content/etc) I worked for,
broadcast.com. They then proceeded to slowly drive the property into the
ground, to where now, there's so little of it left it's pathetic.

If they had really grasped on to what we were doing back then, and ran with
it, Yahoo would have come out ahead of YouTube, Google Video, and, I could
imagine, many of the current streaming radio players out there now (lastfm,
rdio, etc).

But that didn't happen. They silently killed off what they spent so much on to
buy.

~~~
staunch
No, they would not have. Nothing Broadcast.com did offered any advantage in
creating something like YouTube.

Broadcast.com was almost 10 years ahead of its time and probably would not
have survived on its own. Yahoo made one of the worst acquisitions in history
and then did the smart thing by cutting their losses.

Until around 2005 (when Flash Player 7 implemented progressive streaming)
there was no good way to stream video on the internet and not enough users
with broadband to build a big business around it.

YouTube was created at exactly the right moment, by a startup, which is how it
would have happened regardless of what Yahoo did.

~~~
Terretta
4 paragraphs:

1a) i dont know, but I'm sure some of these other points aren't right

1b) true, in the official product offering, but scaffolding was there

2a) false and true (thanks to burn rate and earlier assertion being false)

2b) true (price required plan not supported after purchase) and true

3a) false (multibitrate Windows Media was fantastic with a great video and
audio codec, while Flash was plain bad till H.264), and in the years you say
there wasn't demand, we built a similar business that routinely helped
customers reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of viewers at a profit
for them and a profit for us.

4a) YouTube (non-essential/comedy/ugc content being perfect for a ubiquitous
animation player supporting a crappy codec via pseudostreaming) isn't Hulu,
and isn't Broadcast.com. Hulu secured content users want to pay for.

Yahoo needs users' attention.

~~~
staunch
You could browse the web on a mobile phone before the iPhone too...

Windows Media was horrible from a end-user UX perspective (not well integrated
into browsers, differences across OSes/browsers, version/codec issues) and
required special server software.

RTMP streaming over Flash Communication Server was great on end-user UX but
still required special server software.

Real Video/QuickTime sucked on both sides.

There's a world of difference between something being technically possible and
being good enough to cause widespread adoption.

There were many streaming businesses that saw small scale success (like
Broadcast.com) before Flash 7 was released. Just like there were some fairly
successful business built selling Java games on flip phones.

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zaidf
Is Hulu even an acquisition target at _any_ reasonable price? I always felt
the media co backers of Hulu(Viacom, Time Warner etc.) want to keep it
independent and use it more to progress their corporate cause than make a
return by selling Hulu.

I'd put Hulu as one of the least likely companies to be acquired.

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jerf
I haven't really loved Hulu, in fact just today I canceled my premium free
trial with them... but they don't deserve _that!_ Nobody deserves death-by-
acquisition-by-Yahoo.

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leif
I read the title and half expected an article about Yahoo! asking Hulu to save
them.

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floppydisk
That was the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw the article. Yahoo. .
. buying something huge? Is the world ending?

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Steko
This can only end badly with AOL acquiring Hulu and running 10+ minutes of ads
per 23 min show.

Yes I realize this is about Yahoo but I don't think they can afford it.

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nextparadigms
Does anyone else think Hulu would be a good acquisition for Google, especially
now that they have Google TV? It would've been better if they bought Netflix a
while ago, but Hulu seems to be like the next best thing. Plus, it's based on
ads and everything.

~~~
AllenKids
The second Google purchases Hulu, the site's content licenses will be revoked
by All the providers and they'll demand a renegotiation of far more favorible
deal.

Hulu was only able to stay afloat because it was backed by FOX NBC and Disney,
and got all those shows at a heavily discounted price. The networks were very
cautious to not create an iTunes for TV that would grow to be too big to
control, they use very restrictive and short term content license to ensure
that.

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varworld
It seems like Yahoo has decided to bet on their Connected TV brand, with this
bid for hulu and recent acquisition of IntoNow makes it pretty clear. This may
be a better direction for their display ad business instead of generic
internet services.

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orofino
Yahoo simply isn't going to be able to buy themselves out of the hole they've
made. Honestly, I'd be surprised if they could muster an offer that Hulu would
find appealing.

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sixtofour
Well, Hulu comes pre-neglected, so it will fit right in to Yahoo's portfolio
management.

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spoiledtechie
I personally think Yahoo is Corporate greed at its highest. Nothing good has
come from Yahoo management and higher ups. The only good that has come have
been from developers. To me personally, I think Yahoo is all about money now.
Hulu would make another target to rake in profits and then dismiss or run into
the ground like other commentors.

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aresant
As a talent acquisition to get a hold of Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu, I'd love to
see this happen.

Kilar gets online media, gets working with the content providers, gets ad
driven content businesses.

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Terretta
What did Yahoo do with Stewart Butterfield?

Look back through "talent" buys... They tend to leave Yahoo more quickly than
other buyers like Microsoft or Google.

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amurmann
Am I the only one who doesn't understand why Yahoo is even still around? Since
at least three years I have only heard about Yahoo products because they were
canceled.

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46Bit
Can we have it the other way around?

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killerswan
Hulu to buy Yahoo? Impressive.

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andrewcross
If Yahoo acquires Hulu, does that mean it will come to Canada? Pleasee!!!

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waterside81
I'm in Toronto and watch Hulu/Netflix US all the time. You need a VPN service.
StrongVPN is $7/month. Worth it if you're exploring cutting the cable from
Rogers/Bell/Telus.

~~~
jackowayed
If you have a server in the US (any very cheap hosting--I think even shared
hosting--should work), you can also just do SSH tunneling.

