Money & Biz: For a moment, Netflix was worth more than Disney

[playahaitian]

http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/24/investing/netflix-disney-comcast-market-value/index.html

For a moment, Netflix was worth more than Disney
by Paul R. La Monica @lamonicabuzzMay 24, 2018: 11:42 PM ET




Netflix is worth more than Disney

NFLX) shares were up Thursday even as Disney (DIS), Comcast (CMCSA) and the broader market fell.


But Disney regained the crown by the close after Netflix shares pared their gains, taking the streaming company's market cap below $152 billion.

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Netflix is still in second place ahead of Comcast, which it passed Wednesday. The cable giant is now valued at about $145.5 billion.

Netflix has added millions of subscribers around the globe for the past few years. The company's success demonstrates that its bet on original content -- shows like "Stranger Things," "Orange is the New Black, "The Crown" and "13 Reasons Why" -- has paid off.

The company even announced a price hike for subscribers last year, but that hasn't slowed its growth.

Disney plans to launch its own streaming network. But that hasn't hurt Netflix yet, despite the fact that Netflix airs many shows based on Disney-owned Marvel comic book characters.

Competition from Hulu -- the streaming service backed by Disney, Fox and CNN parent company Time Warner -- hasn't really dented Netflix's growth either. Nor has Amazon (AMZN) Prime Video.

Before this week, Netflix had already passed most traditional media companies, including Time Warner(TWX), Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox (FOXA), CBS (CBS) and Viacom (VIAB).

Netflix is now getting closer to telecom and media giants AT&T and Verizon. Both companies are worth about $200 billion. The Justice Department has sued to block AT&T (T) from buying Time Warner. A federal judge is expected to rule on the case by June 12. Verizon (VZ) owns AOL and Yahoo.

 

[playahaitian]

Netflix was briefly worth more than Disney today

Photo: Pascal Le Segretain (Getty Images)
As a clear indicator of just how much investors want streaming to continue on as a viable content consumption option, Netflix’s stock value has spent the week steadily growing and growing until it crossed an important milestone today by briefly becoming more valuable than Disney—the same Disney that owns all of the biggest properties in pop culture today. The key word there is “briefly,” as Netflix finished the day with a market cap (essentially the total value of its shares) slightly below Disney’s, but we’re still talking about just over $151 billion versus $152 billion. That’s pretty darn close, even if these are stupidly huge numbers.


That comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which pins Netflix’s success on the fact that it passed 125 million subscribers back in April and made $3.6 billion in the first quarter of the year. As for Disney, it’s printing money with the mainline Star Wars movies and MCU entries like Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War, but its TV networks—specifically ESPN—have been struggling and analysts are expecting Solo: A Star Wars Story to have a lower opening than any of Disney’s other Star Wars movies.



This may seem like good news for Netflix, but it also must be bittersweet for the company’s executives. After all, there’s no telling how much more valuable it could be today if it had held onto King Of The Hill and American Dad. Who knows, maybe Ted Sarandos would be the president and we’d all be living in the United Netflix Accounts Of America?