Rumors with the word “Verizon” in them seem to have taken over the headlines in the home entertainment world. Last week, the big story was the purported pairing of Verizon and Redbox in a new streaming partnership. Now a DealReporter article is claiming that Verizon may in fact just attempt to buy Netflix.
Shares of Netflix jumped about 5.6 percent on the news, but not everyone is convinced that Netflix is the apple of Verizon’s eye. The Wall Street Journal‘s Shira Ovide, for example, says that Netflix is a poor choice as an acquisition right now since its market value is nearly equal to the amount it will be spending in the coming years on content.
Said Ovide:
“Netflix has said it owes more than $3.5 billion over the next several years — that’s right, about equal to Netflix’s current market value — to buy the rights to TV shows and movies, and Netflix continues to strike new entertainment-content agreements . . . And if a deep pocketed owner buys Netflix, you better believe the TV-and-movie companies will be demanding an even bigger pound of flesh.”
Which seems more plausible to you at this point, Insiders: a Verizon/Redbox streaming partnership, or a Verizon-owned Netflix? Or are both rumors specious and not likely to come to pass?
(via The Wrap)
I’ll guess flix wouldn’t sell at a price vher-rise-on would want to buy it at.
Ah rumors! Netflix’ layoff announcement did not do it, but a hokey buyout offer from an old REBOC did! ;)
Neflix’ stock price increased 7% on December 12th.
Okay Verizon buying Netflix, hun???? If any of you remember Verizon was born from GTE. I worked for GTE in the eighties and nineties and half of the beginning of the 2000’s. At one point GTE was the largest residential telephone company in the United States. GTE had one of the first cell operation in the country and sold it to a very new company(at that time) called Sprint. After that GTE had NO cell operations. It took years for Verizon to come to fruition. Look now where they are. They are not only the largest in the world but they have the highest customer rating. Verizon also has the best internet service in the country too. Fios TV, Phone, Internet residential service is considered the best. The leadership at Verizon has always looked for future improvements to all it’s services. I see an excellent fit for Verizon taking over Netflix. The company assets are super strong and this is exactly what Netflix need for future growth. Yes TV and Motion picture companies will have their hands out further but Verizon knows how to bargain. They have prove that with there network base. So, do you want a weak company taking over or a very strong company??? My bet goes to Verizon and thats not because I had a past history with them I know how upper management has worked in that company for years. Verizon also has the real estate to expand if needed. One last thing. GTE once owned Sylvania, yes the light manufacture company. GTE made a fortune selling all of it’s operations. It’s now called Osram Sylvania, a subsidiary of Siemens a hugh company. Siemens lets Sylvania control all of it’s electronic operations around the world with not much say. You will find there lower end products in places like Wal Mart and Kmart. Well getting back to Netflix, I own stock and took a beating this year and I will make it my view to them by proxy to change things if I think it will be better for business. I didn’t agree with the increase but if it was done gradually that would have worked. As for the spin-off that was a really big mess. Let the DVD service slowly die over many years as streaming gets better and better with greater content…
I have Fios for almost 3 years and it is far superior for internet and tv over what I had at Comcast.
Let them buy it and sink. I dropped NetFlix like a bad habit!
And Verizon also!