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(Image source: Hulu)
BY MATT PICHT
Companies hoping to get their hands on the popular online video service Hulu were disappointed
Friday when Hulu's owners announced they decided not to sell the company.
Hulu is primarily owned by two groups: The Walt Disney Corporation, and 21st Century
Fox. Hulu's owners offered the company to the highest bidder a few weeks ago.
Now, Disney and Fox are taking Hulu off the market and jointly investing $750 million
into its growth. CEO Bob Iger told Bloomberg the selling process revealed how valuable
Hulu was to its current owners.
"We ultimately concluded that even though we had some very compelling offers on the
table, the future of Hulu is bright. And if the future of Hulu is bright than we should
hold onto it."
The move has left eager Hulu buyers, like DirecTV, AT&T and Time Warner Cable feeling
a little sore. One of the jilted Hulu buyers told the Los Angeles Times, neither company
who owns Hulu is willing to let go of their potential cash cow.
"Though Disney and 21st Century Fox are not on the same page about a long-term strategy
for Hulu, they also can't bring themselves to part with it. Neither wants to be the Boston
Red Sox trading Babe Ruth, or the Pittsburgh Steelers letting Johnny Unitas go."
So what's next for Hulu? Insider sources tell The New York Times, Hulu's owners are looking
to use the service to solve the "TV Everywhere" problem — the need for cable and satellite
subscribers to stream their shows wherever and whenever the viewers wants.
"'TV Everywhere' has been talked about for years as a way to retain subscribers — and
counter the threat from Netflix — but programmers like Fox, and distributors like DirecTV, have
struggled to make it a reality. Hulu could help by becoming a hub for 'TV Everywhere'
— and less of a free-for-all library of shows, the way it exists now."
This isn't the first time Hulu's owners have gotten cold feet about selling the company;
in 2011, News Corp. and Disney took the company off the auction block after hoping to raise
$2 billion for its sale.