Guggenheim Investments [profile] may soon gain a digitial television pioneer for a sibling.

AllThingsD, Bloomberg Businessweek and the Wall Street journal all report that the asset manager's parent, private equity giant Guggenheim Partners, is one of several possible bidders who have had preliminary chats with Hulu, a website that allows users to stream current television online.

Comcast, News Corp and Walt Disney each own about one-third of Hulu, though only the latter two can vote on its future. AllThingsD names Amazon and Yahoo as other tirekickers looking at Hulu.

How big would the deal be? Hulu claimed $695 million in revenue in 2012, 65 percent above 2011, from a combination of premium subscription fees and adverstising. According to Bloomberg, in a 2011 auction that involved Amazon, Google and Yahoo, Dish Network bid $1.9 billion for Hulu, an offer that Hulu rejected. Reuters reports that Hulu considered an IPO in 2010 and that the company bought out Providence Equity Partners' 10-percent stake for $200 million in October 2012, which would value the whole company at $2 billion (perhaps a bit more, since Providence's stake was non-controlling). 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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