Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos once showed interest in buying Netflix. In a recent interview, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings revealed that Bezos wanted to buy the streaming platform in 1998, as part of Amazon’s strategy to expand into the video market. However, Hastings and Marc Randolph, both declined the acquisition proposal. Hastings further added that Bezos never made a formal offer. He said “It never got to be like a formal offer. It was sort of exploratory.”
“And here's the Shocker, we said no. And then we worked our ass off for 20 years. Okay, and then if you compare the stock return, you know if we had sold and they'd just ridden the Amazon stock up”.
During the interview, Hastings further explained that Bezos’ team suggested a price in the low eight figures. Marc Randolph, in his 2019 book That Will Never Work, guessed that meant somewhere between $14 million and $16 million.
"When someone uses ‘low eight figures,' that means barely eight-figures. That means probably something between $14 million and $16 million," Randolph wrote in the memoir.
Why Blockbuster didn’t want to buy Netflix
During the interview, Hastings also talked about the time when they tried to sell the company to Blockbuster. He said “It was to avoid a big fight … We realized that if we're gonna grow really big, we're gonna have a big fight with them. And how about if we just give them 50 and then you know help them profit and not have that big fight with them?”.
He further added “But you know, they're like a big corporation. We were a bunch of Scrappy Silicon Valley kids, and they were like, you know, when we want to do online, we'll just do it. And so they didn't see any need you know or interest in buying us?”.
“And here's the Shocker, we said no. And then we worked our ass off for 20 years. Okay, and then if you compare the stock return, you know if we had sold and they'd just ridden the Amazon stock up”.
During the interview, Hastings further explained that Bezos’ team suggested a price in the low eight figures. Marc Randolph, in his 2019 book That Will Never Work, guessed that meant somewhere between $14 million and $16 million.
"When someone uses ‘low eight figures,' that means barely eight-figures. That means probably something between $14 million and $16 million," Randolph wrote in the memoir.
Why Blockbuster didn’t want to buy Netflix
During the interview, Hastings also talked about the time when they tried to sell the company to Blockbuster. He said “It was to avoid a big fight … We realized that if we're gonna grow really big, we're gonna have a big fight with them. And how about if we just give them 50 and then you know help them profit and not have that big fight with them?”.
He further added “But you know, they're like a big corporation. We were a bunch of Scrappy Silicon Valley kids, and they were like, you know, when we want to do online, we'll just do it. And so they didn't see any need you know or interest in buying us?”.
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