LOS ANGELES, May 25 (UPI) -- Yahoo! Inc. has joined six other bidders for U.S. entertainment Web site Hulu, a source close to the deal-making told The Wall Street Journal.
While some of the Hulu suitors had been previously revealed, the full list so far includes Yahoo!, DirecTV, Time Warner Cable, Guggenheim Digital Media, private equity firm KKR, a group headed by former News Corp. President Peter Chernin and Silver Lake Partners with support from William Morris Endeavor, the Journal reported Saturday.
Hulu, where consumers download movies and television shows, earned about $700 million in revenue in 2012. It has 4 million customers, who pay $7.99 per month to access the 70,000 shows in its catalog.
The value of the company is highly dependent on whether it can renew contracts to keep its catalog flush with offerings, the Journal said.
By contrast, Netflix Inc., a rival, has 28 million subscribers, the Journal said.
Hulu is owned by News Corp., Walt Disney Co. and Comcast Corp., which cannot vote its share due to antitrust regulations.
News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal and Fox television. Disney owns ABC and Comcast owns NBC, so the current owners of Hulu are already investing in other options for video streaming and have licensed the rights to some shows to rivals, like Netflix.
How these deals play out could affect the value of Hulu.
