Business: Will Apple "Bite Into" Netflix?

-Forbes & Variety

Citi analysts recently sent a note to clients saying there is a 40% chance that Apple AAPL +0.9% will buy Netflix NFLX +3.41%, according to Business Insider. This will no doubt garner headlines and will be discussed ad nauseam on the financial news networks.

The basis for the analyst's argument is that Apple will have $252 billion in overseas cash available to repatriate, and they need to do something with it. It would be boring and obvious to tell their clients that Apple will stay the course and continue what they've been doing — making smaller acquisitions (like last month's purchase of Shazam), increasing research & development spending and buying back shares and growing their dividends. It's much splashier to say they'll do something exciting like buy Netflix, Walt Disney DIS +1.93%, or TeslaTSLA +3.25%.

Meanwhile, Variety reported that Netflix was negotiating with the studio to “buy into” its library and to have Besson exclusively direct and produce several films for the streaming service. Capital says that that the two “almost reached” an agreement in February, and that the new deal would “give Netflix the operational management of EuropaCorp

Last year, French filmmaker Luc Besson released Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, a glitzy, CGI-filled summer blockbuster which ended up being a disappointment at the box office for his studio EuropaCorp. According to a report in the French site Capital (via The Playlist and io9), Netflix is “in advanced talks” to purchase the studio.

Besson co-founded the studio in 1999, and since then, it’s been known for films such as Lucy, Taken, Lock-Out, The Circle, and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The studio blamed the latter and other weak performers for an $83 million loss at the end of 2017, and weeks later, Variety reported that there were several buyers interested in purchasing the company, which was struggling with its debt.