Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Apple Considering a Bid For Hulu?
Apple is considering a bid for Hulu, the online streaming service, according to a report from Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. is considering making a bid for the Hulu online video service, according to two people with knowledge of the auction.There are several companies considering making offers for Hulu, with Yahoo reportedly making a bid of $2 billion but the company wanted a five-year exclusive on streaming content. Google, AT&T and a number of other companies are also in the mix, though Microsoft reportedly dropped out of the bidding earlier this week.
Apple is in early talks that may lead to an acquisition offer for Los Angeles-based Hulu, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
If sold, Hulu would retain its exclusive content licenses from current owners Disney (where Steve Jobs is a major shareholder and sits on the board) FOX/News Corp., and Comcast/NBC.
This week Apple reported that it had $76.2 billion in cash and marketable securities on hand. In October, Steve Jobs said of the cash pile, "we strongly believe that one or more very strategic opportunities may come along that we can take that we're in a unique position to take advantage of because of our strong cash position."
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107 months ago
Apple rarely buys well established known companies. They usually buy small companies and bring them in house.
107 months ago
I hope Apple can clean up Hulu's online interface... I was never a fan of it.
107 months ago
It would be supremely ironic if Apple ended up buying Hulu seeing that it was originally set up by Fox and NBC to compete against the iTunes store. NBC briefly left iTunes, but Fox did not. NBC eventually crawled back.
Wayback Time Machine:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2007/oct/29/hulustartsprivatebetawhile
Wayback Time Machine:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2007/oct/29/hulustartsprivatebetawhile
107 months ago
Remind me, why did Apple buy Lala? Is it in your iTunes yet?
But they didn't buy Pandora, Spotify, GrooveShark or any other # of music subscription services. So, you're logic doesn't add up.
107 months ago
It's worth noting even if Apple did acquire Hulu, Hulu is available only to users in the U.S. This is due to not having international streaming rights for Hulu's content.
Hulu intends to get international streaming rights for their content (their Hulu support twitter (http://twitter.com/hulu_support) often mentions this is being worked on).
Apple offers TV and movie content in many countries, while Hulu is still limited to the U.S.
Also worth noting iTunes has shows on there from studios like ABC here in Australia, HBO and CBS which are not Hulu content partners.
Hulu intends to get international streaming rights for their content (their Hulu support twitter (http://twitter.com/hulu_support) often mentions this is being worked on).
Apple offers TV and movie content in many countries, while Hulu is still limited to the U.S.
Also worth noting iTunes has shows on there from studios like ABC here in Australia, HBO and CBS which are not Hulu content partners.
107 months ago
Why would Apple want to buy Hulu? Apple already has everything they need to run their own.
They have their own servers and bandwidth (iTunes store).
Excluding downloads, if they can handle 30 second preview clips, they can handle 30 minutes or 1 hour streaming shows.
All that's needed is the "rights" to stream from whomever and a few extra lines of code in iTunes for streaming.
Such a waste of money. All they're really buying is the "Hulu" brand. iTunes is more recognized in the consumers mind than Hulu. I see no point in this transaction.
They have their own servers and bandwidth (iTunes store).
Excluding downloads, if they can handle 30 second preview clips, they can handle 30 minutes or 1 hour streaming shows.
All that's needed is the "rights" to stream from whomever and a few extra lines of code in iTunes for streaming.
Such a waste of money. All they're really buying is the "Hulu" brand. iTunes is more recognized in the consumers mind than Hulu. I see no point in this transaction.
107 months ago
NetFlix is also in the bidding, I'd like to see them get all of the licenses so they could beef up their selections and make me a customer
Let's not give Netflix another reason to raise our rates.
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