Heloise Goy with Alexis Patri
The American streaming platform for movies and series Netflix saw its market capitalization plunge last week, after the announcement of weaker than expected growth prospects. A fall in the price of its shares which allowed a businessman, the American Bill Ackman, to invest at a lower cost.
Netflix’s misfortune seems to have made American businessman Bill Ackman happy. In the market turmoil, the American platform for streaming films and series Netflix has a new shareholder. Businessman Bill Ackman took advantage of the fall in Netflix’s share price to invest heavily, and at a lower cost, in the company. He acquired three million shares of Netflix.
Bill Ackman’s investment, through his company Pershing Square Holdings, peaks at $1 billion. The American thus suddenly ranks among the 20 main shareholders of the video-on-demand group.
Will Bill Ackman intervene in Netflix’s strategy?
To understand what enabled it to make this massive stock buyback, you have to look at the dramatic plunge in Netflix’s market capitalization. Last week, the streaming platform announced weaker than expected growth prospects. As a result, its share price had fallen by more than 20%. And Bill Ackman therefore took advantage of a particularly attractive cost of shares to invest in the platform.
If he is known to intervene in the decisions of the companies where he invests, Bill Ackman has for the moment said that he does not want to change Netflix’s strategy. A strategy currently being piloted by current Netflix co-founder and director Reed Hastings.