According to Bloomberg, struggling Internet-based film and TV streaming service Hulu is looking for a buyer. One of the companies supposedly in the running for the service and considering a purchase is Apple.
In case you’re not up on the current Hulu situation, in July the company announced that it had hired Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim Partners to assist with a the sale and rumor was that Yahoo! and, possibly Microsoft and Amazon, were interested.
However, it seems Apple may be the frontrunner now. Although, at this time, no company has made an actual bid for Hulu.
A Hulu purchase may seem like a good thing for Apple. They’ve already got iTunes but Hulu would allow them a better way to compete with streaming services like Netflix since, at the moment, you can only purchase or rent videos from within iTunes.
Something to keep in mind, though, is that Apple isn’t really know for acquiring companies. They are just as likely to take an idea and spin it and launch a new service of their own as an addition or enhancement of their existing service. Plus, Hulu only has about 1 million subscribers at the moment and that’s not really all that many.
In fact, that’s what I would bet happens in this case. Apple won’t buy Hulu and, instead, will announce an enhanced content streaming initiative of their own, perhaps just in time for the holidays. Whatever happens, it should shape up to be an interesting next few months what with the rumored launch of the iPhone 5, the newly released Mac OS X Lion and upcoming iOS5.
iTuneTV » Hulu a Wild Card for Apple in the Gadget Market? – Christian Post
July 24, 2011 at 5:34 am[…] Netflix: reportBeatweek MagazineWhat An Apple, Hulu Combo Would Look LikeSan Francisco ChronicleApple Considering Hulu PurchaseThe FlickcastSocial Barrel -eBrandz -Wall St. Cheat Sheetall 19 news […]