Netflix and Bing, anyone?
Microsoft is going to power Netflix's upcoming ad-supported tier.
Strategically, choosing Microsoft makes sense for Netflix; unlike the other major bidders, Microsoft didn't have a competing media platform, as this CNBC article notes.
But I still thought Google would win this one.
Actually, I thought Google would seriously consider using some of the $133 billion cash it has on hand to simply acquire Netflix (which only has a $78.7 billion market cap as of today) and then proceed to integrate it into the Google machine.
(Read: monetize the heck out of it.)
They have some direct experience doing that, after all.
Remember, they paid $1.6 billion to acquire YouTube in 2016, then proceeded to monetize it. And it worked really, REALLY well: YouTube generated $28.8 billion for Google in 2021 alone, representing 11.2% of the company's total revenue last year. That's quite the ROI.
So might an acquisition offer have been a better play than bidding to be an advertising partner (and losing to a competitor)?
I guess we'll never know.
P.S. Thank you to everyone who sent me an email to offer condolences on the death of my grandfather after I published my last post. I appreciate your kind thoughts and words.