Okay Geek Farm
Rumor: Apple in talks to acquire Hulu
Ricardo Trejo
Capitalism at its finest — Apple is setting the stage for what could be one of the company’s biggest moves away from their computing roots. Once known for creating the world’s first successful home computer, Steve Jobs has his sights on bigger fish to fry, namely Netflix.
Bloomberg reports that Apple is in prelimary talks with Hulu to acquire the video streaming service.
“Apple, the world’s second-most-valuable company, is in early talks that may lead to an offer for Hulu, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly.”
This sorta feels a little like the Microsoft / Skype deal where the one big question ends up being “what will they do with the service?” Well, if Hulu were to now be Apple’s property then so would all the programming deals with Disney, NBC Universal, and News Corp. too. Not to mention the wide reach it has to even owners of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3 platforms, where players can access the Hulu app and stream content similar to how Netflix does — which in effect would make Apple a leading player in the entertainment industry, holding the keys to some of television’s most watched programs.
Is Apple poised to jump out of the hardware world and into managing a Netflix rival? We’ll see, but like all of these talks do; it certainly makes things a whole lot more interesting.
