Friday, July 12, 2013

Hulu Gets $750M, Studios To Maintain Ownership

Los Angeles-based video streaming site Hulu will receive $750M in a funding round, and continue to be owned by 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal and The Walt Disney Company, those firms announced Friday morning, as the companies have decided not to sell their stake in the onlie television site. According to the three studios, they will maintain their respective ownership positions in Hulu. The new funding will go to "propel future growth".

The announcement comes after a long, extended effort by those studios to again sell Hulu, which had valued the company at around $1 billion. Hulu had apparently been entertaining a wide range of bids from bidders, including DirecTV, Time Warner Cable, The Chernin Group, as well as private equity groups.

The aborted bid to sell Hulu is actually the second time that the owners have attempted to sell the video site; the company's studio owners had also attempted a sale in 2011, only to decide against a sale.

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