A representative for Netflix pointed to recent remarks made by chief financial officer Spence Neumann, who downplayed its M&A ambitions at an investor conference earlier this month.
But the company, which has historically preferred to build products rather than buy them, in recent months demonstrated a newfound openness to paying a premium for the right asset. And the multimonth WBD flirtation suggests an appetite for something larger than its typical small-bet acquisition style.
So, what should the company buy now? I put that question to eight analysts, investors, and media strategists. Their answers ranged from the obvious to the genuinely surprising.
Sports rights or a sports platform
Netflix’s recent push into live programming, most visibly its deal to stream WWE Raw, has made plain that sports programming is a priority for the streaming giant.
But the company still lacks a coherent sports strategy and the infrastructure to support one, according to Chris Cochrane, chief strategy officer at the programmatic ad agency Plug Media.
It could solve those problems by acquiring a sports platform like DAZN, Cochrane said, addressing both problems at once by delivering rights, relationships, and a ready-made audience of sports subscribers.
“Netflix still lacks a consistent sports strategy,” Cochrane said. “Acquiring a sports platform could give it immediate rights infrastructure and established relationships in the sports ecosystem.”
Alan Wolk, a media analyst and cofounder of TVREV, makes a similar case for the company to acquire NBCU, noting that its streaming service Peacock would come bundled with substantial sports rights, including the NFL, the Olympics, the Premier League, supercharging Netflix’s live ambitions overnight.
The streaming math, he argues, increasingly favors whoever can claim the last monocultural event.
“Sports,” he said, “is the last bastion of monoculture.”
A gaming publisher
Netflix has been trying to crack gaming for years, with middling results. Its mobile gaming library has grown but has failed to meaningfully move the needle.
The problem is that Netflix keeps flirting with complicated business models without committing to them, according to media analyst and Parqor founder Andrew Rosen. Gaming, he notes, is fundamentally a community product, one that depends on ads, in-app purchases, and social features that Netflix’s platform doesn’t support.
The solution, several experts suggest, is to stop building and start buying.
Cochrane pointed to EA or Ubisoft as candidates that would instantly deliver premium IP and a new content pipeline, while media strategist Evan Shapiro made the case for Take-Two or Roblox.
“Netflix has been failing in gaming for years,” Shapiro said. “Roblox has never been profitable. And it is chock full of great IP.”
