Yahoo seems to have some surprisingly deep pockets ready for making acquisitions, as the company reportedly offered anywhere from $600 to $800 million to purchase online streaming platform Hulu. The report comes from All Things D, after revealing Yahoo's intentions to purchase the site earlier in May.
The offer comes hot on the heels of Yahoo committing to a $1.1 billion acquisition of blogging platform Tumblr. In spite of that large investment, it's clear that the company is looking to further expand its offerings. Video is an area it has always lacked, and getting Hulu in its portfolio would rectify that situation. It already attempted to purchase DailyMotion last month, but French officials shot that deal down.
The final price will vary based on licensing specifics and the amount of control its current owners have over the programing. Of course, this same price variation is likely to apply to the other companies interested in acquiring Hulu. According to the report, these include three private equity firms, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, and the Chernin Group.
Sources close to the situation claim that it is unlikely any offer under $1 billion will be accepted, but it's pretty standard for companies to start with lower offers and negotiate up from there.
This is not the first time Hulu has been available. Initially it was on the market for closer to $2 billion, but no offers in that range came in. The site is reportedly much closer to actually selling on this occasion.