Should Apple acquire Netflix?

One of the acquisitions experts have pointed out Apple badly missed on is Netflix. There have been numerous expositions on why Apple buying Netflix makes sense and why it should be something the company must consider. However, such an announcement is yet to be seen, and may never arrive. Apple now has TV+ which seems to be picking up well.

Things aren’t going so well for Netflix though. Over the past few years, their subscription prices have slowly risen across many markets. Subscriber growth has slowly declined, and for the first time today, the entertainment platform has reported a loss of 200,000 subscribers in Quarter One of 2022.

Projections point to about 2 Million subscribers being lost in the second quarter.

While that’s terrible news for the company and its shareholders, it must be exciting for competing streaming platforms including Showmax in Africa, Disney+, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video and many others.

For them, it means they can now steal Netflix’s subscribers by offering better subscription prices and better shows – two things subscribers want.

There’s little to nothing Netflix can do right now to change their course. I doubt even free tiers as we’ve seen in Kenya can help lure more people into paying.

Remember, Netflix still needs to burn through a lot of cash in order to please different audiences in different regions by creating original content.

It’s a catch-22: Can’t raise prices because it may alienate subscribers. Need money to make more shows, because without shows, you may alienate subscribers. Can’t lose subscribers as it will affect shareholder confidence.

Wouldn’t now be the perfect time for Apple to walk in and acquire the company? No? Well, here are my arguments supporting such an acquisition:

• Apple has a lot of money. The company has some of the largest cash reserves in the world. Acquiring and turning around Netflix’s issue won’t be a problem.
• Apple TV+ unlike Netflix isn’t available world wide. Acquiring Netflix allows Apple content to be available everywhere. That opens avenues to push Apple products to even more people.
• Apple TV+ doesn’t have a huge library. Netflix has a really big library of content – win win.
• Netflix has partnerships with many studios and companies and with enough cash from Apple, the quality of the movies and shows will definitely improve.
• Subscription fees won’t need to be too expensive to keep the platform running, meaning more people will be able to sign up.

What do you think?