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Okay, Netflix, maybe we were hasty and this is the worst week ever for you.
After the price increase business failed to impress subscribers and they began to drop off en masse, investor confidence in the once seemingly-unshakeable brand followed suit. Coupled with the loss of popular Starz content on the streaming service, it seemed Netflix would have a difficult time rebounding from the setbacks.
CEO Reed Hastings sent out a panicked email to subscribers Monday morning, backpedaling and again trying to sell the massive price hike by spinning the DVD rental service off as a new initiative called Qwikster. (Expertly skewered in today’s Oatmeal comic.) Reaction was mixed to negative among subscribers, and wholly negative among investors, as Netflix stock plunged another 7% in Monday trading.
However, it’s worth pointing out that since July, Netflix stock has dropped an astounding 42% in July after the price-hike announcement, and is down a total of 50% since July 13th’s high. As Mashable points out, Netflix was the worst performer in the S&P 500 last week. It’s conceivable Netflix could turn things around- as of last week, the site had only lost one in 25 subscribers- but it’s unlikely that will occur without at least some rollback in pricing. And with the newly announced advent of Qwikster, how that will occur is difficult to imagine.
