Yahoo and private equity firms KKR and Silver Lake Management have all made bids to acquire Hulu, an individual with knowledge of the company told TheWrap. That brings the total number of bids to seven.
Hulu owners Disney, News Corp. and Comcast will spend the next few weeks evaluating the different suitors, the individual said.
All of the bids are for the whole company except for Time Warner Cable's bid for an equity investment.
Also read: How Many Different Companies Can Bid on Hulu? Too Many
Silver Lake's bid is of special interest in Hollywood due its 31 percent stake in talent agency William Morris Endeavor. Silver Lake, a leading investor in technology companies, is working with WME on its bid. A WME spokesman declined to comment on the bid.
The prices vary quite a bit because it also involves bidding for rights to the TV shows that make Hulu so valuable. Hulu's owners have made new episodes of their shows available on Hulu shortly after airing.
Hulu declined to comment about any potential deal.
Hulu's owners began exploring a sale earlier this year, meeting with various companies about a potential acquisition. These bids are non-binding, but the suitors should find out in the next few weeks which one of them made it to the next stage of the process.
At that point, the suitors and the owners will delve into the content side of the equation, determining which shows will still be available and how much it would cost a new owner to keep the rights.
The bids are not public, though Bloomberg cites sources with knowledge of the situation that claim Chernin offered at least $500 million. Chernin declined to comment. Hulu, which offers both a free service and a subscription-based one, increased revenue by 65 percent last year to $695 million.