The seven best burns in Netflix s latest shareholder letter

Get the Full StoryThe streaming giant knows how to deliver a body blow to its rivals.

The quarterly shareholder letter is not usually the place one expects to find roast battle-style insults. Well, the corporate version of those takedowns. But then most companies are not Netflix.

Netflix s letter to shareholders about its fourth-quarter earnings, which was posted Thursday afternoon in advance of the company s earnings call, was characteristically rife with snubs at all of the traditional media players that Netflix is hell-bent on destroying. Never one for subtlety, Netflix paraded out its most recent victories all those people who watched Bird Box! Its haul of Golden Globe statuettes! without ever missing an opportunity to remind everyone who is on the losing side of Netflix s glorious rise. Wait, there a word for that, right? Schaden . . . . Oh, never mind.

The letter dutifully reported that Netflix had a strong fourth quarter, with subscribers now up to 139 million 1.5 million came from the U.S.; 7.3 million were international the company s biggest Q4 subscriber jump in its history. Revenue for Q4 was up 27 to 4.19 billion, slightly below Wall Street s expectations, and earnings came in higher than expected at 30 cents per share. Annual revenue increased 35 to 16 billion in 2018, and operating profits nearly doubled to 1.6 billion.

Still, due to the soft growth in the U.S. market, Netflix s stock was down as much as 4 in after-hours trading. The slip comes just two days after Wall Street sent Netflix stock up 6.5 in the wake of Netflix s announcement that it will be raising prices on all of its plans starting this year.

But enough about that. On to the subtle and not-so-subtle jabs!

1. The global reach of our audience and the quality of the experience producing for Netflix continues to attract the world s top directors.

Operative phrase: world s top directors.

Notable word choice: Continues

Message No. 1: Take that, studios, agents, and everyone else in Hollywood who says no one watches movies in their living rooms!Read Full Story

Share: