Pershing Square Capital Management (PSMC) has acquired more than 3.1 million shares of Netflix, making it a top-20 shareholder in the company.
In a statement, it says that “the opportunity to acquire Netflix at an attractive valuation emerged when investors reacted negativity to the recent quarter’s subscriber growth and management’s short-term guidance. Netflix substantial stock price decline was further exacerbated by recent market volatility”.
It adds: “We have greatly admired Netflix both as consumers and as investors, but have never previously owned a stake in the company. Netflix is a primary beneficiary of the growth in streaming and the decline in linear TV driven by its superior customer experience, a vast and diverse amount of superb, constantly refreshed content, global improvements in bandwidth, and the proliferation and continuous improvement and convenience of devices on which one can watch”.
PSMC says that In order to fund its purchase of Netflix, beginning last Friday and over the last few days, it unwound the substantial majority of our interest rate hedge generating proceeds of $1.25 billion.
