Hasta La Gadget!

Hulu has been reportedly entertaining bids for some weeks now, with Yahoo! having been the latest company to hit the rumor mill. Various prices have been tossed around, such as the $800 million Yahoo is said to have bid for the video service, but none of them have reached the level of three alleged bids leaked by unnamed sources: $1 billion. While two of the bids were from companies unknown, one is said to be from Directv.

The information comes from people who are said to be “familiar with the bid.” Reportedly, the powers that be behind Hulu have been looking into seven bids for the service, with the next month or so being used to whittle those down to three or four. While most of those bids fall below the $1 billion mark, three are said to meet or exceed that figure.

Needless to say, such a figure could certainly increase the odds of Hulu’s board agreeing to a sale, something that hasn’t been set in stone. Directv would benefit from the service for obvious reasons, having another platform of content to offer the viewing public that expands beyond what it currently offers. It isn’t the only company to aim at grabbing the company, however.

In early April, we heard rumor from sources that former president of News Corp. – one of Hulu’s owners – Peter Chernin bid on Hulu for $500 million. Rumor of other bids began surfacing soon after, with bidders including Time Warner Cable, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, Guggenheim Digital, and KKR & Co.

It was announced in late April that Hulu experienced massive growth in its first quarter, tacking on a million subscribers and seeing 1 billion videos streamed over a three-month period. That brought the total number of subscribers to over 4 million.

SOURCE: Bloomberg

Hulu reportedly receives 3 bids over $1bn is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Hulu Plus living room experience has had a user interface update today, bringing Hulu’s Seattle-born vision for non-desktop streaming video to various devices. This update has brought on a new vision for the streaming video platform, now working with in-app Hulu Plus signup, Hulu Kids – an extension of the Hulu Kids child-friendly selection of programs available to web-based users, and simplified controls all-around.

The updated Hulu Plus living room user interface will be working with – most obviously – larger and easier to digest artwork for each media bit and piece. Easier navigation is provided through this enhancement as well as through a system called Trays. With Hulu Plus’ new Tray-style format, users will be able to scroll through selections with much greater ease that the slightly more convoluted system presented in past iterations of the software.

Search functionality has been enhanced in this latest update, this interface simplified once again to add to the overall easier top-to-bottom refurbishing of the user interface. Search now shows results directly beneath the search where before they were – again – not part of as smooth an experience.

This update comes right on the tail of an announcement by Fanivision of a device by the name of Fan TV. This machine will quite likely be featuring Hulu Plus by the time it is released in the future – release date remains unknown at the moment.

The Hulu Plus living room experience update is on its way first to Samsung Smart TVs and Blu-ray players, inclusive of 2012 and 2013 models of Samsung Smart TVs and a select number of Blu-ray players from their recent collection. Roku will also be seeing this update starting today, while the Nintendo Wii will have to wait – soon, and very soon!

SOURCE: Hulu

Hulu Plus living room experience update hits Samsung and Roku first, Wii second is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Hulu Plus has been on a roll in the mobile world this month, dishing out a brand-new Windows Phone app and updates to its Android UI. Fortunately, the service is pushing out similar efforts to the home entertainment side as well: a new refresh is rolling out to Samsung Smart TVs, select Blu-ray players and newer Roku hardware, with the Wii getting the update treatment in the near future. Enhancements in the new “experience” include a new tray-style user interface with a “shows you watch” feature, simplified controls, better search and Hulu Kids. Sounds like a pretty solid effort by the company, but if you’re not convinced, head to the source link for the full list of changes.

Update: A post on the Roku blog indicates the new UI is coming to the Roku HD (2500) and later models including the Roku 2, 3 and Streaming Stick. Earlier devices will still get the old UI.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Comments

Source: Hulu Blog, Roku Blog

After we recently heard about the possibility of Yahoo buying out Hulu, more information is surfacing revealing that Yahoo is said to be paying somewhere between $600 million and $800 million for the streaming service. This range is based on different options that Yahoo has laid out for Hulu, including the length of licenses and how much control content creators will still have.

Rumors of Yahoo buying Hulu come shortly after the company bought blogging service Tumblr for a cool $1.1 billion, as well as purchasing a handful of smaller startups, including online gaming platform PlayerScale. With newly-appointed CEO Marissa Mayer at the helm, Yahoo has practically pulled a complete 180, and the Mayer is looking to turn things around for the dying company.

As more and more companies are getting into the television and movie streaming business, Yahoo has been one of the bigger companies to remain stagnant in that area, but it seems they be doing things the easy way by purchasing Hulu and calling it a day. It’s one of the most popular streaming services on the internet, right up there with Netflix.

Hulu was originally put up for sale back in 2011 for a whopping $2 billion, but after no one was interested in paying that much, Hulu eventually took down the offer and continued on with their day-to-day. However, after failing to purchase YouTube (for which Google won the prize), it seems Yahoo is looking to take another stab at a video streaming service.

According to sources close to the situation, the negotiation for the Yahoo Hulu acquisition mostly deals with the control and price of the content, rather than just negotiating a simple price for the Hulu service itself. The one question many people are probably asking, however, is if Hulu is worth $800 million. Yahoo paid over $1 billion to Tumblr, but should a popular video streaming service receive more cash?

SOURCE: AllThingsD

Yahoo Hulu acquisition rumored for $800m bid is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Hulu has been a source of rumors for months now, with word surfacing in March that the video service’s board is looking into selling the service. Not too long after that, sources began popping up claiming various entities have been in talks with or placed bids on Hulu, including one of its owner’s former president. Now another source has surfaced, this one telling the folks over at AllThingsD that Yahoo! has placed a bid for the platform.

The source is someone said to be familiar with the matter, having said Yahoo! submitted the bid for Hulu earlier this morning. How much the company reportedly offered – and in return for what – wasn’t specified, and Yahoo! isn’t commenting on the matter. This follows a previous attempt in its part to buy a different video site, DailyMotion, which ultimately fell through.

Yahoo! isn’t the only company that is looking into buying it, however, with other alleged interested entities including Directv, KKR, The Chernin Group, Guggenheim Digital, Silverlake and William Moriss Endeavor, as well as Time Warner Cable. As we reported on April 5, The Chernin Group was started by Peter Chernin, who was previously one of the individuals at the helm of Hulu in its hayday, eventually leaving to form his own company, which has holdings in companies like Pandora. The Group reportedly placed a $500 million bid on Hulu.

This rumor follows a Yahoo! acquisition of Tumblr on May 20th for a hefty $1.1 billion, with the former company promising it won’t screw up the service. Such a deal had been rumored for weeks before it happened. A few days later, on May 23, Yahoo then nabbed up PlayerScale as well, a software infrastructure for multi-platform gaming.

According to the source, interested companies were told by Hulu to have their bids in by Wednesday of this week, but it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that other bids could be entertained in the future. For now we’ll have to wait for more details to emerge, including what a Hulu purchase would look like for the winning bidder, but for the time being there’s the possibility we might see Yahoo nab up another big service in the near future.

SOURCE: AllThingsD

Yahoo bids on Hulu says source is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.