What you need to know
- Netflix shares have absolutely cratered after it emerged the company is losing subs.
- One tycoon who bought $1.1 billion in Netflix shares in January has sold up.
- Bill Ackman lost almost $400M despite promising to back the company long term.
A Wall Street fund manager has sold his firm's entire Netflix stake to the tune of $400M in losses, just three months after buying $1.1 billion in shares as a 'long-term' investment.
The Telegraph reports:
Bill Ackman has lost around £300m with the sale of his entire stake in Netflix after the streaming giant revealed a dramatic decline in its subscriber numbers.The Wall Street fund manager has exited his Netflix stake after investing $1.1 billion just three months ago with a promise to back the company for the "long-term".
As the report notes, Netflix shares fell by a staggering 34% on Wednesday, after the company revealed it had lost 200,000 subscribers in Q1 and expected to lose another 2 million in Q2. Ackman told Pershing Square investors that "in light of the enormous operating leverage inherent in the company's business model, changes in the company's future subscriber growth can have an outsized impact on our estimate of intrinsic value." Ackman said the firm's original analysis viewed this leverage as favorable "due to our long-term growth expectations for the company."
As the report notes, now Netflix is hoping to beef up its business by clamping down on some 100 million users who share a password with another paying household and is considering new lower tier subscriptions subsidized by ads.
Despite being one of the best iPhone apps for streaming original content on demand, Netflix also said the emergence of strong rivals such as Disney+ was also having an impact on its business.
