Verizon ‘Very Serious’ About Making Bid for Netflix, Banker Says

Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) — Porter Bibb, managing partner at Mediatech Capital Partners LLC, talks about Verizon Communications Inc.’s possible offer for Neflix Inc. and the outlook for the streaming video industry.
He speaks with Jon Erlichman on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg West.” Emily Chang also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg)

Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), the
second-largest U.S. phone company, is “very serious” about a
bid to acquire online movie provider Netflix Inc. (NFLX), an investment
banker said.

Verizon may kick off a bidding war for streaming-video
pioneer Netflix that could result in a sale by Easter for about
$4.6 billion, said Porter Bibb, managing partner at Mediatech
Capital, in a television interview yesterday on “Bloomberg
West,” citing unnamed people within Verizon.

“I am hearing rumblings from inside Verizon that they are
very serious about either Netflix or something similar,” Bibb
said.

Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam told an investor
conference on Dec. 7 that the company aims to move beyond its
Fios TV service into the streaming-video business.

“We continue to look at alternatives,” McAdam said at a
UBS investor conference in New York. Los Gatos, California-based
Netflix has a market capitalization of $4.17 billion.

Verizon, based in New York, is considering an offer for
Netflix because telecommunications companies are concerned they
will shoulder the increasing costs of transmitting video over
their networks as providers such as Netflix, Amazon.com (AMZN) and Hulu
LLC decline to share their profits, Deal Reporter reported
earlier today, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesman, and Torod Neptune, a
spokesman for Verizon, declined to comment.

Netflix, which offers subscriptions for video streaming and
DVDs by mail, rose 6.2 percent to $75.26 yesterday at the New
York close. The stock has fallen 57 percent this year.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Cliff Edwards in San Francisco at
cedwards28@bloomberg.net;
Jonathan Erlichman in San Francisco at
jerlichman1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Anthony Palazzo at
apalazzo@bloomberg.net

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Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-12/verizon-very-serious-about-interest-in-netflix-bibb-says.html

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