Netflix to raise $1.08B through debt offering; global and local content in focus

Netflix has announced that it intends to raise $1.08 billion (€1 billion) through an offering of senior notes outside the United States to non-US persons and to qualified institutional buyers, according to a statement issued by the company. Netflix intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, which may include content acquisitions, capital expenditures, investments, working capital and potential acquisitions and strategic transactions. The company had last, raised $1 billion in a similar debt offering in October 2016. Netflix claims to have over 93 million members in over 190 countries.

Global opportunity

Reed Hastings, Founder, Chairman of the Board, CEO and President, Netflix, said during the Q1 2017 financial results interview, “Well, I’m — we’re super excited, expecting to cross 100 million this weekend. That’s a big accomplishment. But it’s really just the beginning. When you look at YouTube having 1 billion active users and 1 billion hours every day, when you look at Facebook’s multi-billion numbers, we see that the Internet is just a phenomenal opportunity. You know, of course, we’re a pay service, not ad supported. We’re not as deep in international as those companies. But we definitely see a big opportunity around the world to just continue to do what we’ve been doing, which is make fantastic content, get people really excited about that content, and then we’re just continuing to grow.”

Local content

Theodore A Sarandos, Chief Content Officer, Netflix, said during the interview that the company is “definitely already building” its ” production capabilities outside of the United States.”

“We’re today filming local shows in 13 different countries, including India, including Japan. So we are doing it simultaneously. We think it’s going to be the combination of the big global interest original programming, complemented with a growing number of local language original series in each country. So we’re operating all over the world. We’re producing all over the world because that’s where our customers are.”