Yahoo! buying spree continues: Hulu may be next

27 May 2013

Yahoo!'s CEO Marissa Mayer

Fresh from sealing a deal to acquire Tumblr for US$1.1bn, Yahoo! is now believed to be setting its sights on buying online TV player Hulu for up to US$800m.

The Hulu acquisition for between US$600m and US$800m is part of an effort by Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer to help make the internet portal relevant again.

According to AllThingsD, Yahoo! is also understood to be targeting two other monster acquisitions, one in the area of mobile and the other in the area of communications.

It is clear that Mayer is trying to help Yahoo! recover its lost mojo, from the turn of the century when it was one of the hottest internet properties around to the pivotal events of recent years where its board botched a US$48bn takeover attempt by Microsoft and the decision by Mayer’s predecessor to step down.

The acquisition of youth blogging site Tumblr was preceded by a decision in March to buy Summly, a news app business founded by 17-year-old Nick D’Aloisio.

Mayer’s efforts to make Yahoo! cool again will only bear fruit if it results in increased advertising revenue.

Simply buying up hot properties isn’t enough and she’ll know from her time at Google that integrating these properties into something meaningful and cohesive will be the bigger battle.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com