*By Kavitha Shastry*
Shares of Netflix surged after hours Tuesday after the company said it added nearly 7 million subscribers in its latest quarter, well more than what analysts were expecting.
The video streaming service added 5.87 million users internationally and nearly 1.1 million in the U.S. ー the company had originally forecast additions of 4.35 million and about 650,000, respectively.
Netflix ($NFLX) stock was up more than 15 percent after the results, rising to its highest level since July before its last earnings report, when it posted subscriber growth that fell short of estimates.
Analysts were closely watching how the company would grow in the face of increased competition, not only from streaming "stalwarts" like Hulu and Amazon's ($AMZN) Prime Video, but also from traditional media and telecom companies such as Disney ($DIS) and AT&T ($T) that are looking to combat the cord-cutting trend.
In its letter to shareholders, Netflix confirmed its commitment to original content, highlighting the recently-announced production hub in Albuquerque, NM, where it plans to spend $1 billion a year.
The company, which has not been shy about its strategy to test out a slew of projects without worrying whether or not they succeed, said, "We strive to offer a wide breadth of programming because we want to maximize the size of our membership base." Evidence of that seems clear in the 676 hours of original content that debuted during the quarter ー more than double what it produced a year before.
Netflix reported revenue of nearly $4 billion for the quarter, in line with analyst estimates, and earnings of $0.89 a share, well above expectations for $0.68.
The company said it expected to add 9.4 million subscribers in the fourth quarter, 7.6 million internationally.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
