Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

Netflix Raises More Money for Originals Like “House of Cards”

Fresh off a gangbusters earnings report, Netflix is asking investors to bet on it again: The streaming video company is raising money that it may use to invest in its own TV shows.

Netflix says it intends to raise $400 million in debt, and will use $225 million of that money to refinance some of its existing notes.

The company says it will use the remainder for “general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures, investments, working capital and potential acquisitions and strategic transactions.”

But in his quarterly shareholders’ letter last week, Reed Hastings was more concise about what he planned to do with the money: It would be used for “additional reserves as well as increased flexibility to fund future originals.”

Netflix already has a slate of five original series announced, including “House of Cards,” the $100 million Kevin Spacey production that premieres on Friday. Up next: A new season of Fox’s cancelled “Arrested Development,” which we’ll see in May.

In between the two: We’ll talk to Netflix content boss Ted Sarandos, and some of the talent he’s spending his original production dollars on, at our D: Dive Into Media conference next month. See you there.

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Just as the atom bomb was the weapon that was supposed to render war obsolete, the Internet seems like capitalism’s ultimate feat of self-destructive genius, an economic doomsday device rendering it impossible for anyone to ever make a profit off anything again. It’s especially hopeless for those whose work is easily digitized and accessed free of charge.

— Author Tim Kreider on not getting paid for one’s work