Estimated Value $1 billion

Last Year’s Rank  Valuation #23  $750 million

Business Online video service that offers a selection of TV shows, clips and movies

Location Los Angeles, California

CEO Jason Kilar

Investors Providence Equity Partners, The Walt Disney Company, NBC Universal and News Corp.

Sharespost Index
Analysis The market for the living room is completely fragmented with nearly every competitor falling under one of the three categories hardware (Roku, TiVo, WD TV Live, Popbox, etc.), platform (Sonic Solutions, Yahoo!, VUDU, etc.) and content (Hulu, Netflix). Hulu is one of the leading content plays. And given that “content is king” and Hulu has premium content, the company is able to charge a higher CMP rate that online networks (lacking broadcast quality content) can’t compete with. The company recently launched Hulu Plus, its ad-supported, subscription offering. For $9.99  month, iPhone and iPad users can view significantly more shows (back seasons andor full seasons).

According to the New York Times, Hulu is approaching investment banks to underwrite an IPO this fall valuing the company at $2 billion. Revenues for the video site were $100 million last year, and are expected to reach $200-$250 million this year. Of that, we've heard Hulu keeps only 35-40%. So, even with a decent top line, Hulu's bottom line is believed to be small.

On gross revenue estimates of $250 million, we apply a 4x multiple (given the low margin and various competitive concerns) giving the company a valuation of $1 billion.