UPDATED 12:52 EST / JULY 22 2010

Netflix Shares Take Bad Tumble, In Talks for PS3 Update

Netfix shares took an 11.9 percent fall this week, with shareholders dumping their stock after Netflix missed their projections during its earnings call last night. That’s the most Netflix has fallen in nearly two years, landing stock prices at $107.45 early this morning.

With second-quarter sales rising 27% to $519.8 million, Netflix was $5.6 million below analysts’ estimates at Bloomberg.

Not all was bad on the earnings call. Netflix’s net income rose 34% to 80 cents a share, 10 cents higher than estimates. Subscribers also grew, reaching 15 million last month thanks to a 42% increase over the past year. That’s almost 8% higher than Netflix’s first quarter, exceeding expectations as well. From Bloomberg,

The company spent more on acquiring new customers, $24.37 through June 30, compared to $23.88 the same period a year ago and $21.54 in the first quarter.

Hastings is funneling cash into Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service as competition heats up with Coinstar Inc.’s Redbox movie-rental vending machines and alternatives such as pay-per-view on cable. Netflix service starts at $8.99 a month for streaming and one DVD at a time. The company said this week that it plans a video-streaming service in Canada, its first foray outside the U.S.

Seeing Netflix’s current woes, one can’t help but to wonder how much of this has to do with the growing competition. Hulu in particular is looking to become a major player in the on-demand streaming space, launching premium service Hulu Plus across several mobile devices and game consoles. Redbox is looking to contend with Netflix as well, announcing its plans for adding streaming services to its kiosk rental service.

That doesn’t mean Netflix will be taking things lying down. According to CNET, Netflix is in talks with Sony for an updated PS3 interface. It won’t require a disc, and will probably work like the Netflix app for Xbox 360. And as far as Hulu goes, Netflix doesn’t seem all that concerned.


A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU