Hulu was taken off the market once again after the owners decided to stay together, adding another chapter to the long-planned sale process of the video service website.
The three companies that own Hulu - the Walt Disney Company, the 21st Century Fox, and NBC Universal - announced on Friday that they will not go on with the plan to sell Hulu. Instead, the three giant companies decided to pour in $750 million investment to improve their video service.
The latest development came as a surprise to disappointed bidders like DirectTV, who is reportedly willing to pay as much as $1 billion for Hulu. Aside from DirectTV, Bloomberg also previously reported that Yahoo also pitched in their bid to acquire the video service website.
Chase Carey, the president and chief operating officer of 21st Century Fox, confirmed that they had meaningful conversations with interested buyers, but they eventually decided to call off the plan anew.
"We had meaningful conversations with a number of potential partners and buyers, each with impressive plans and offers to match. But with 21st Century Fox and Disney fully aligned in our collective vision and goals for the business, we decided to continue to empower the Hulu team, in this fashion, to continue the incredible momentum they've built over the last few years," Carey said in a statement.
Disney chief executive Robert Iger told the media during an Allen and Company media conference that their decision had nothing to do with the bids for the video service, saying that bids from several companies were solid.
"The future of Hulu is bright, and if the future of Hulu is bright, then we should hold onto it," Iger said.
The co-owners of the Hulu, which airs programs from ABC, Fox News, and NBC, also flirted with the idea of selling the company in 2011 with an asking price of $2 billion dollars. There were reports back then suggesting that Google offered as much as $4 billion, but the two parties failed to strike a deal.
Hulu was established in 2008, attracting more than 30 million unique visitors every month along with more than four million subscribers.