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Here’s Why Netflix Is Raising $1 Billion

By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
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By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
April 24, 2017, 11:43 AM ET

Netflix is hoping to raise more cash.

In a statement on Monday, the streaming video company said that it intends to raise 1 billion euro ($1.08 billion) through a senior note offering outside the United States. The company didn’t say when it would begin to offer the notes, but said that all buyers will live outside the U.S. The company plans to negotiate the interest rates and maturity dates with the individual buyers.

Netflix (NFLX) said that it plans to use the proceeds for “general corporate purposes.” Among those purposes, Netflix said that it could use the cash for “content acquisitions” and possible acquisitions. The company might also use it for capital expenditures and investments.

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Netflix announced plans to raise more money last week with its first quarter earnings. However, the company didn’t say at the time how much it would hope to raise.

The online video company has been growing rapidly and now has more than 94 million subscribers streaming its video content around the world. However, in order to remain competitive, Netflix has been spending massive sums of cash to acquire content and produce its own original content. And all of that programming comes at a cost.

Netflix acknowledged that challenge last week in its shareholder letter, saying that although it has negative cash flow and expects to have $2 billion in negative cash flow this year, it needs to grow its content lineup.

“We have a large market opportunity ahead of us and we’re optimizing long-term [free cash flow] by growing our original content aggressively,” the company wrote. “Negative near-term [free cash flow] is the result of the big increases in our original content, combined with small but growing operating margins.”

Netflix, in other words, believes that if it can raise cash to buy enough content, it’ll pay off.

The company isn’t alone in that thinking. Apple (AAPL), Hulu, Amazon (AMZN), and countless other companies are also eyeing new and original content to boost their own services and, like Netflix, are spending massive sums to acquire it.

So far, shareholders appear willing to accept that logic: Netflix shares are up 50% in the last year.

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By Don Reisinger
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