Less than a week after turning down the top post at Yahoo, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar is said to be firmly in the sights of Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, according to a report.
Sources tell the New York Post that Zuckerberg is eyeing Kilar for a senior post at the social networking giant.
Facebook, under pressure following a botched IPO and slowing revenue growth, is looking for ways to court big media and Madison Avenue. As The Post points out, it is particularly interested in developing meaningful video advertising revenue, which is currently close to zero. To do that, Facebook needs to strike some content deals.
As CEO of Hulu, an online video venture jointly owned by News Corp., Disney, and Comcast/NBCUniversal, Kilar is readily familiar with online video, video advertising and the media and advertising industries.
“All of a sudden Facebook has loosened up on content plays. I would hire him,” a veteran Internet exec tells the Post. “The other part of content is they could distribute movies if they wanted to.”
Kilar, a former Amazon executive, publicly said that he was “graciously declining to be considered” as CEO of Yahoo last week. The fact that his contract with Hulu has expired made him an interesting candidate, although he may yet decide to renew with Hulu, sources said.
Neither Facebook or Hulu commented on the story.