Netflix
OK, I really took that brief pause to surgically remove my tongue from my cheek. As shocks and surprises go, this one rates about a 1 on the Richter scale.
Walt Disney
The WSJ reports that a murderer's row of media and Internet businesses have shown interest, starting with an unsolicited bid by Yahoo!
And that's because the only reason Netflix would be interested in this auction would be to conduct some industrial espionage. The cabal of current owners would hate to consolidate their market for digital TV distribution by handing Hulu to Netflix, for starters.
Moreover, Netflix is far too busy building its own library of media licenses to spend several billion on a frivolous Hulu purchase.
Finally, Hulu's mostly ad-supported business model is a far cry from the ad-free subscriptions service that Netflix runs. Hulu serves a very specific demographic; Netflix serves a different specific market.
I'm more surprised that Apple