diatho t1_j124azx wrote on December 21, 2022 at 2:42 AM

Why would Microsoft want to buy Netflix? How does it help its core business of cloud and b2b? It doesn’t.

Activison makes games for game pass which is a subscription that gets Microsoft consistent revenue. Netflix would just be expensive. Apple is doing video to get people to pay into their bundle of news+games +phone. Amazon is trying to make prime more attractive and prime is unique in that it sells channels within it so you can be on prime and watch britbox.

Silverlight42 t1_j126ci1 wrote on December 21, 2022 at 2:58 AM

Why would Microsoft want to buy TikTok?

They tried.

Stranger things could do and might happen. There's a lot of consolidation happening everywhere. They're going after Activision/Blizzard now, I thought?

But yeah, I wouldn't really hold my breath or count on it.

ijakinov t1_j12ymsv wrote on December 21, 2022 at 7:42 AM

They’ve always wanted social media. They’ve always kind of had a toe in it too with MSN/WL they’ve acquired other social networking sites and tried to others other than Tik tok. Spent a lot of money to own a small part of Facebook. My guess is that they like the prospects of additional subscription and ads based businesses that they can converge. Maybe also because of the scale of social media companies has led to a lot of tech innovation.

Microsoft had a TV division for a brief period of time. The current CEO shut it down shortly after he joined. Netflix is super expensive to buy. But they also at the same time they don’t like their money sitting in the bank.

Kaiser_Allen t1_j142ks3 wrote on December 21, 2022 at 2:58 PM

Microsoft bought LinkedIn, Yammer and GitHub, so their appetite is there. They also tried to buy Facebook and Pinterest.

vitorgrs t1_j12nv8h wrote on December 21, 2022 at 5:35 AM

The point is xcloud. Which the article says if you read it.

[deleted] t1_j12rqaq wrote on December 21, 2022 at 6:17 AM

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Radulno t1_j12tbc6 wrote on December 21, 2022 at 6:35 AM

Microsoft is expanding into other businesses than those core ones (where they dominate anyway, they don't have much more to do). You could say the same of Activision Blizzard acquisition, why they go into games (though they already are)? It's obvious they want to go into entertainment.

Though if they do want to buy a streamer, I doubt it'll be Netflix. My guess is Warner Bros Discovery, wait more for the crisis to get a cheaper price (though you still have the debt so it's expensive but Microsoft can afford it and they feel like spending it seems at the moment, they overpaid for Activision) and get it.

They get very strong IP (DC notably but also Game of Thrones and tons of stuff from Warner over the years), prestige TV with HBO, reality TV stuff with Discovery (we can not like it here, it's popular), video game studios with strong IP in DC (might counter the Marvel focus of Sony) and Harry Potter (the new upcoming game seems destined for success and probably sequels). Sure they don't get as much subscribers at once but still there's more than Netflix here IMO and it's cheaper.

QuintoBlanco t1_j136399 wrote on December 21, 2022 at 9:23 AM

I can definitely think of a reason.

Direct access to all Netflix subscribers.

That database is extremely valuable.

The number of subscriptions isn't very high (for companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Google), but these are paying households, 220 million of them.

And people in those households interact with Netflix daily, or at least a few times a week.

Business users are also consumers. Plus Microsoft has a long history of targeting students. Get them when they are young.

I would offer a bundle with Netflix and an MS product and use that MS product to try to convince customers to upgrade to an MS Office subscription or an Xbox pass.

I can see a low-res, one screen only subscription, very cheap, with MS adds for emerging markets being very effective.