The sacking of Yahoo chief executive officer Carol Bartz sparked a wave of conflicting reports and expert analysis on the company‘s future. The news of Bartz’s firing was first broken by Kara Swisher and came as no surprise to industry insiders as Yahoo had been struggling since her appointment. Kara also wrote in a later post, quoting a source close to the company, that while the sale of Yahoo was the least likely option, "It is all on the table."

Experts rushed to predict and analyze potential suitors for Yahoo. Business Insider’s Nicholas Carlson reported that ‘The On-Again, Off-Again Between Yahoo And News Corp Is Officially On-Again,’ claiming that “Yahoo executives and board members are not be opposed to the idea, and – under the right conditions – neither are News Corp's digital executives or the man who really matters, Rupert Murdoch.” More importantly, the article also said that “One scenario that no one we've talked to at either company seems to hate is one in which Yahoo ends up with Hulu, and News Corp ends up owning a huge – or complete – stake in the new company.”

Hulu has recently been subject to a bidding war by Yahoo, Amazon, Google, and the Dish Network; with Yahoo being the first to approach the company. Hulu has grown to become one of the most popular sources of video content online. The reason why it might be up for sale steams from the fact that its owners, Walt Disney Co., Comcast/General Electric and News Corp., own major TV networks that compete with one another: "There were complaints a couple of years ago about Hulu salespeople going out and pitching against ABC salespeople who also show video on Internet, and they're undercutting their prices."

Yahoo’s fiercest rival in its attempt to acquire Hulu remains Google. In an effort to improve its advertising revenue stream from video streaming, something that Google has been struggling with since it acquired YouTube, the search giant has “made an over-arching bid that aimed for extras (most likely further licensing) and put a lot more money on the table”, reported SearchEngineWatch.com, “enough money that, despite the long-time efforts of Hulu's owners to keep licensing secure and provide a buffer against a YouTube takeover, the executives are considering it.”