It appears that Apple can be added to the list of potential buyers for Internet video service, Hulu. Two individuals with knowledge of the Hulu sale told Bloomberg that Apple might be making a bid. With $76.2 billion in cash and securities on their side, Apple is clearly in a good position to buy up Hulu.
During an earnings call on Tuesday, Brian Marshall, from Gleatcher and Company inquired as to why the iTunes video library was skimpy on TV shows and movies and exactly what Apple was planning to do about it. Buying up Hulu would definitely bolster the TV and movie offerings in the iTunes library. The purchase would also give Apple the instant benefit of a subscription service without any development time.
Apple CFO, Peter Oppenheimer replied to the question of iTunes video content by calling the companies selection, "very very broad" and indicating more content was coming. "Look for some more content later this quarter across the various stores," said Oppenheimer. "We have some neat stuff coming."
Apple could have some strong competition if they choose to put an offer on Hulu. Yahoo has already offered approximately $2 billion for the company and other potential bidders include Google, Amazon, and previously Microsoft. Yahoo couldn't strike a deal with Hulu though because they wanted four to five years of exclusive access to current TV shows and movies. Hulu's owners only wanted to give two years of exclusivity which reportedly wasn't enough for Yahoo.
Apple isn't exactly known for buying up other companies, but Hulu would give them an in to the competitive video streaming market currently dominated by Netflix. The future of video streaming could get very interesting very soon.
