Late last week, hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson sent out a detailed analysis of why his fund is short Netflix, which caught the eye of the company’s CEO, Reed Hastings. What’d Hastings think of the call? First off, he agrees you could make money shorting this thing.
“It is possible that one could make money shorting Netflix today,” CEO Reed Hastings, whose movie-rental company has moved to online delivery from DVDs, wrote in a posting on the Seeking Alpha website.
Having said that, and he doesn’t say this as the CEO of Netflix but as a friend and someone who loves kids, Reed would like to caution Tilson to back off before he or anyone else gets hurt.
“But shorting a market-leading firm as it is driving a huge new market is a very gutsy call,” Reed wrote…Hastings called Tilson “a great investor” and noted that they both provide financial support to the Knowledge Is Power Program, or KIPP, a nationwide network of charter schools. “I am writing this open letter for him to try to get him to cover his short now,” the CEO wrote. “My desire is to increase his odds of making money next year so he can donate even more.”
Think of the children, Whitney.
Netflix CEO Tells T2’s Tilson to Drop Bearish Bet: Chart of Day [Bloomberg]
it’s fucking on, Tilson. don’t say hi to me at the charity ball unless you want your teeth knocked out.
-reed
bringing underprivileged children into defense of your company is the new killing it?
Perhaps Reed can do a presentation at the next Value Investing Congress entitled, “How to Bitch Slap a Short Seller in the Financial Press.”
yeah, he really ‘bitch-slapped’ him. writing a blog post on seeking alpha really adds gravitas to the rebuttal, too…
Hi Reed, welcome to dealbreaker.
Pwn3d!
At least he tried!
“Buildling”? Is that an immature structure?
Other than that I have no concerns.
Fact: In less than 2 months, Netflix will account for over 187% of all available Internet bandwidth. And that is without the addition of popular titles such as The Bounty Hunter and Clash of the Titans.
…and that helps Netflix how? Good to know the isps will be gunning hard to impose tolls on nflx. Margin compression is a bitch.
-guy who loves watching others shoot themselves in the foot.
Great story.
I prefer Hollywood Video. They have the most delicious snacks.
Wit-ney’s a girrrrl’s name!!
-Reed [Last ditch effort heckle after the Seeking Alpha letter was only read by 4 people, 1 that was out of college]
Reed joins the SS Haters Hall of Fame; prior inductees are Richard Severin “I will burn the shorts” Fuld Jr. of Lehman Brothers Holdings and Patrick M. “Sith Lord and naked shorts” Byrne of Overstock.com
I may suggest a more direct way to deal with short sellers to Reed. But I digress.
- P. Jiang
187 percent!? Wow! That’s, like, almost half!
-former AIG analyst
187 percent!? Wow! That’s, like, almost half!
-former AIG analyst
I mean, if having 100% exposure to something is a good trade, then 200% exposure is great, right?
-former BSAM portfolio manager
SS? I suggest you examine your motives.
I was planning to break this news in 28 days.
tilson a great investor? he is ackman’s little bitch, he just copies whatever ackman does
If stock goes up.. reed wins and should donate more… if it falls tilson wins and should donate more.. either way kids win.. :D