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Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

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Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#141

Post by marcamillion »

camus wrote: post #74
anoncow wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a ceo, but buying hulu looks like a good idea if they have the cash. Better than rolling out a new one from scratch. I would say simple business decisions may make a good businessperson.

You cant roll out a Hulu from scratch. It is basically a venture between content providers. How much TV content does Yahoo produce ? none. It is a huge mistake to buy Hulu. I dont know how much they'll be paying for this but it is worth 0 money, just like Tumblr.

I don't understand why this criticism keeps coming up.

Isn't it safe to assume that anyone that is buying Hulu would know that the content is what is most important?

I assume that to be the case for Mayer, so I assume she wouldn't buy Hulu without the content. That doesn't make sense. Unless....she knows something that we don't know...like Yahoo is going into the original content creation business like Netflix - but even then, we would still be years away from Hulu recovering from the networks pulling their stuff.

Give them a little credit please.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#142

Post by marcamillion »

smacktoward wrote: post #61
marcamillion wrote: post #32

Wow....I feel like I am watching a brilliant game of chess. Marissa Mayer is increasingly showing her genius. It is clear that she understands that Yahoo is a New Media company. They serve assets to many eyeballs and monetize those assets. It seems that in her case, their main goal is grab up as much quality inventory as she can, and monetize the hell out of it. As their media inventory gets bigger, economies of scal…

It is clear that she understands that Yahoo is a New Media company. They serve assets to many eyeballs and monetize those assets. That is pretty much the exact same thing as Terry Semel's vision for Yahoo was. Remember him?

Yes...but for whatever reason, he couldn't execute.

Perhaps he didn't have the geek cred that Mayer has - so no one would make the deals with him.

Tumblr is a major coup for her, and if she pulls of Hulu...that would be crazy too.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#143

Post by mccolin »

veidr wrote: post #139
Moto7451 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never understood why people dislike the commercials so much. Most of their half hour (21 minute) shows only contain at most three minutes of commercials spread through the show. At worse you're sitting through a minute break from the show. People pay $100+ per month and seem to live through tens of minutes of commercials per show. Plus is about having device and HD access more than anything. I like it as I get f…

Ignoring the obvious "I don't want to watch fucking random useless shit in the middle of something I am enjoying," there is another reason: commercials create mental pollution that in some cases never goes away. For instance, I still have the jingle of this horrid local low-budget commercial from KFTY TV 50 (UHF broadcasting out of Santa Rosa, CA) in my brain: "♫ Auto body masters... EuroCal ... ♫ Auto body masters..…

While I feel your pain... that jingle must've been damn catchy! I wonder how effective it was at attracting potential customers from the older-than-eight set?

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#144

Post by marcamillion »

nilkn wrote: post #136
marcamillion wrote: post #32

Wow....I feel like I am watching a brilliant game of chess. Marissa Mayer is increasingly showing her genius. It is clear that she understands that Yahoo is a New Media company. They serve assets to many eyeballs and monetize those assets. It seems that in her case, their main goal is grab up as much quality inventory as she can, and monetize the hell out of it. As their media inventory gets bigger, economies of scal…

Making acquisitions like this isn't CEO genius. Far from it. Yahoo was making acquisitions before Mayer. It's what happens after the acquisitions are made that will determine whether Yahoo just blew billions of dollars or actually pushed their company forward into the next generation.

sigh

It's not about the fact that she is making acquisitions. It is a well known fact that CEOs like to be self-aggrandizing by doing big deals.

The difference is the TYPE of deals she is doing.

All of her deals, so far, fit into Yahoo's strengths.

Also...the fact that she is able to do these deals at all, is testament to her genius. Many others before her tried, but couldn't do these deals.

So there must be something different about her than everybody else that tried.

Edit: And yes, the story is yet to be told about how these acquisitions turn out. But with the refocus on product, recent redesign and refactor of Flickr and the way she is consolidating Yahoo's focus around products that give quality display media inventory. That is the genius. It is easy to dismiss it, but if it were so easy, why did no one else do it - including 2 of the founders!

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#145

Post by marcamillion »

redler wrote: post #101
tomkarlo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except Hulu doesn't have much inventory, at least on an exclusive basis. It has eyeballs and distribution. The assets belong to the studios and networks. A roll-up is not exactly a new strategy, especially in media. You attempt to build economies of scale by amassing audience and distribution. Historically, however, the prices you pay (especially once folks figure out what you're doing) often prove to be inflated lat…

As an acquisition, Hulu is essentially a bag of content contracts with expiration dates. The infrastructure has value, but it's probably incidental to an acquirer like Yahoo. The challenge is to turn that bag into a property with lasting value; Yahoo is in a much better position to multiply that value than the group of current owners whose half-hearted "coopetition" has resulted in the fickle and watered-down service…

Thank you!

News Corp, Comcast, etc. They don't have the experience selling online display media like Yahoo!

Guess who else does? No one!!!!

So they have an incentive to cooperate.

As I said earlier, if Mayer makes a deal without locking up long-term contracts, then on the surface that seems like a dumb deal.

Given what I have seen of her so far, I would be surprised if she did that. She is doing good so far.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#146

Post by VMG »

veidr wrote: post #139
Moto7451 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never understood why people dislike the commercials so much. Most of their half hour (21 minute) shows only contain at most three minutes of commercials spread through the show. At worse you're sitting through a minute break from the show. People pay $100+ per month and seem to live through tens of minutes of commercials per show. Plus is about having device and HD access more than anything. I like it as I get f…

Ignoring the obvious "I don't want to watch fucking random useless shit in the middle of something I am enjoying," there is another reason: commercials create mental pollution that in some cases never goes away. For instance, I still have the jingle of this horrid local low-budget commercial from KFTY TV 50 (UHF broadcasting out of Santa Rosa, CA) in my brain: "♫ Auto body masters... EuroCal ... ♫ Auto body masters..…

So if you hadn't seen the commercial, what else would be playing in your head? Mozart?

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#147

Post by markhelo »

Moto7451 wrote: post #107
samstave wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had a Hulu account for the last two years. I recently canceled it. Their content is actually not that good, and on top of it, you're forced to watch commercials as well. The service was terrible.

I've never understood why people dislike the commercials so much. Most of their half hour (21 minute) shows only contain at most three minutes of commercials spread through the show. At worse you're sitting through a minute break from the show. People pay $100+ per month and seem to live through tens of minutes of commercials per show. Plus is about having device and HD access more than anything. I like it as I get f…

If I am paying for a service, I prefer to have the option to not have ads. If you like ads, go for it. If PBS, HBO and other premium cable can be ad-free, Hulu should be to. The reason they are not, is because the three networks want more money on their content. However it is a short sighted strategy. (Disclaimer: I worked at Netflix a while back). The competitive advantages that Netflix has over everyone else are more than the technology, which is enormous in itself but they also have a great thought out business strategy. Reed Hastings is a true disrupter. He started out with building the technology first and having perfected that is now becoming a better HBO before HBO becomes a better Netflix. HBO has been making great strides on their technology but Netflix has a 3 year headstart on them and now has enough subscribers to compete for exclusive content. I as a consumer am hoping this fight lasts long so that we all benefit.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#149

Post by JonnieCache »

VMG wrote: post #146
veidr wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring the obvious "I don't want to watch fucking random useless shit in the middle of something I am enjoying," there is another reason: commercials create mental pollution that in some cases never goes away. For instance, I still have the jingle of this horrid local low-budget commercial from KFTY TV 50 (UHF broadcasting out of Santa Rosa, CA) in my brain: "♫ Auto body masters... EuroCal ... ♫ Auto body masters..…

So if you hadn't seen the commercial, what else would be playing in your head? Mozart?

Perhaps. Don't you get music playing in your head?

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#150

Post by austengary »

untog wrote: post #48
marcamillion wrote: post #32

Wow....I feel like I am watching a brilliant game of chess. Marissa Mayer is increasingly showing her genius. It is clear that she understands that Yahoo is a New Media company. They serve assets to many eyeballs and monetize those assets. It seems that in her case, their main goal is grab up as much quality inventory as she can, and monetize the hell out of it. As their media inventory gets bigger, economies of scal…

Is "buy lots of big properties so you can advertise across all of them" really CEO genius ? It's something that Yahoo was doing for years before Meyer even came on board- they bought Flickr and Delicious, and tried to buy Facebook. Granted, none of those were hugely successful, but we're still yet to see whether Tumblr and (maybe) Hulu will be. I'm not sure that buying Hulu is such a slam-dunk, anyway. They are entir…

I think the genius will instead lie in her plan for internal consolidation for the two platforms to converge in harmony as complementary.

Taken together the two most recent poaches (i.q. provided Hulu) have much crossover especially while accounting for further past acquisitions. Amalgamating successfully will position them as key content provider in the market.

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