Google and Dish top bids for Hulu

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) -The bids are in for Hulu and they fall short of the price the streaming service's owners were hoping to fetch.

Google was the highest bidder, according to a report on Business Insider.

The search giant offered $4 billion, but that figure comes with certain caveats, including extensions on Hulu's content deals. That may mean that a $1.9 billion offer from satellite TV operation Dish network is actually richer, the financial blog reports.

As TheWrap previously reported, Amazon and Yahoo were also in the hunt for Hulu, but they reportedly submitted much lower offers.

A spokesperson for Hulu did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Earlier this summer, Hulu was put up for sale by co-owners Comcast, News Corp., Walt Disney Co. and Providence Equity after receiving an unsolicited takeover overture.

One bidder said that documents released thus far show that Hulu is not profitable, despite its rising revenues of $500 million in 2011.

The company has stated publicly that it is profitable, however. The discrepancy may be the size of the profit margin, and projections by Hulu that those will rise exponentially in the next few years.

Moreover, the content deals in place with media providers such as Fox, NBC and the like expire in one year in some instances and do not extend longer than five years in any case.

The company had hoped to attract an offer of $2 billion.