Hulu saga continues as Apple considers bid for online video service

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is mulling a bid for online video provider Hulu, reports Bloomberg, which cited two people with knowledge of the auction. The news comes a day after Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) reportedly bowed out of the bidding.

Apple, with $76.2 billion in cash and securities on its books, is the world's second-most-valuable company. Owning Hulu would provide Apple with a viable challenger to Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), something its Apple TV product has not yet been able to do.

"Part of the ecosystem of Apple's future is to include more video," Scott Sutherland, Wedbush Securities Inc. analyst told Bloomberg. "It's something they are focused on.

Earlier this week Hulu's media-company owners sweetened the offer by offering the buyer guaranteed access to programs from Hulu owners Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS), News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA) and Comcast's (Nasdaq: CMCSA) NBCUniversal for five years, including two years of exclusive access.

Hulu's price tag could exceed $2 billion, and Apple historically hasn't made acquisitions that large, Sutherland noted. However, Apple has been looking at buying up mobile patents, agreeing to pay $2.6 billion as part of a consortium that purchased patents from bankrupt Nortel Networks.

For more:
- see this Bloomberg article

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