????美國流媒體視頻網站Hulu不再掛牌出售，幾家大牌媒體股東決定維持各自股份，并增加7.5億美元現金投資。

????Hulu股東21世紀?？怂梗?1st Century Fox）、NBC環球（NBCUniversal）和沃爾特迪士尼公司（The Walt Disney Co.）在一份聲明中稱，Hulu目前每個月擁有超過3,000萬唯一訪問者，提供來自400多家內容合作伙伴的視頻服務。

????《華爾街日報》（Wall Street Journal）上周初報道稱，Hulu收到了3項最終收購要約。一項來自DirecTV，其他兩項均為聯合出價要約：分別來自美國電話電報公司（AT&T）和切寧集團（Chernin Group），以及KKR集團（Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.）和Guggenheim Digital Media公司。此前的尋購者還包括雅虎（Yahoo）、藝人經紀機構威廉?莫里斯奮進娛樂公司（William Morris Endeavor）和私募公司銀湖資本（Silver Lake）。

????“我想，（Hulu股東們）幾個月前還真想把Hulu賣給出價最高的買主，但隨著他們收到更多的意向，他們開始給予Hulu更高的估值。”據熟悉此事進程的消息人士稱?！坝悬c像是他們被人夸得心花怒放，開始想留下Hulu?！?/p>

????這種感覺有點像是2011年，當時由于潛在買家擔憂賣方將不再通過這個網站提供內容，Hulu流拍。這一次，所有的出價都附有非常明確的、與Hulu現有股東簽訂的內容許可協議，但這些協議有很多限制。這些限制使得最終出價者不多，并將價格限制在了10億美元左右，而不是原本可能獲得的13億、14億美元。

????新聞稿沒有解釋Hulu將如何運用7.50億美元的新增投資，以及新戰略合作伙伴關系是否已經開展。有傳言稱，Hulu可能為時代華納有線（Time Warner Cable）等第三方有線電視推出白標平臺，據稱這是康卡斯特（Comcast）CEO布萊恩?羅伯茨正在推進的一項工作。另有傳言稱，Hulu可能會用資金收購更多的內容和注冊用戶（因為該公司正從廣告支持模式轉向類似流媒體公司Netflix的注冊用戶模式。）

????Hulu的原始四大股東之一、私募股權公司Providence Equity Partners去年秋天將其10%的股份賣給了福克斯、NBC和迪士尼，售價2億美元。Providence起初的1億美元投資獲得了兩倍的投資回報，也使得Hulu的估值達到了20億美元，但這個估值并未被視為是拍賣的底價。（財富中文網）

????Hulu is no longer for sale, as the streaming video company's media owners have decided to maintain their shares and invest an additional $750 million in cash.

????In a statement, owners 21st Century Fox (NWS), NBCUniversal (CMCSA), and The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) said that Hulu now has more than 30 million monthly unique visitors for its service with videos from over 400 content partners.

????The Wall Street Journal had reported earlier this week that there had been three final acquisition offers for Hulu. One came from DirecTV (DTV), while the others were joint bids: one from AT&T (T) and Chernin Group, and another from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Guggenheim Digital Media. Earlier suitors had included Yahoo (YHOO), talent agency William Morris Endeavor, and private equity firm Silver Lake.

????"I think that [Hulu's owners] were genuinely interested in selling the company to the highest bidder a couple of months ago, but they began to value what they had more as they got more inbound interest," says a source familiar with the process. "It was kind of like they were flattered, and it made them begin to want to keep it for themselves."

????This entire experience is a bit of a rerun for Hulu, which also ran a failed auction process back in 2011 after prospective buyers worried that the sellers would no longer offer their content via the site. This time around the bids were attached to very specific content licensing agreements with Hulu's current owners, but they were fairly restrictive. Such limits kept the final bidding group fairly small and also may have kept the price at the $1 billion range rather than the $1.3 billion or $1.4 billion that it may otherwise have garnered.

????The press release does not explain what Hulu will do with its $750 million windfall or if new strategic partnerships are afoot. There had been talk that Hulu could launch a white-labeled platform for third-party cable companies like Time Warner Cable (TWC) -- something Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was said to be pushing -- while Hulu also could use money to acquire additional content and subscribers (as it moves from an ad-supported model toward a more Netflix-like subscription model).

????One of Hulu's original four owners -- private equity firm Providence Equity Partners -- last fall sold its 10% stake to Fox, NBC and Disney for $200 million. That $2 billion valuation had been set via a 2x liquidation preference as part of Providence's original $100 million investment and was not viewed as any sort of floor for the auction process.