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Not content with splurging $1.1bn on cat'n'porn blogging site Tumblr and an undisclosed sum on gaming software firm PlayerScale, Yahoo! now has its wallet set on a bid for video service Hulu.

If the reports are true, Marissa Mayer comes from the "spend money to make money" school of business, having already snagged news aggregator Summly, recommendations app Stamped and video chat firm OnTheAir. Her pursuit of local video firm Dailymotion was confounded by the French government, however.

The Purple Palace must now have a little spare cash in its spending pot, since it has reportedly stuck in a bid of $600m to $800m in for Hulu, according to "insiders" who spoke to AllThingsD.

The on-demand video site has been on the market before, with owners News Corp, Disney and Comcast looking for a cool $2bn for it back in 2011. No one was interested at that price strangely enough (maybe because it wasn't the magical $1bn?), so the site was stuck back on the shelf.

Now Hulu is rumoured to be fielding offers from Time Warner Cable, investment firm KKR, DirecTV and others, although it's not clear if its owners really want to sell or not.

Yahoo! has been suffering from increased competition in its traditional internet market, but seems determined to throw money at the problem until it goes away. The company is snatching up firms in the hopes of jazzing up its internet and mobile offerings and getting back in the game against the likes of Google. ®

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