Dan Caplinger

If combining Netflix and Warner Brothers, especially the subscription service part of Warner Brothers, I'm not sure how much price elasticity that combined entity is going to have in persuading subscribers to pay more.

I've seen some preliminary stuff that suggests Netflix is telling people, hey, don't sweat it, Netflix will stay Netflix, Max will stay Max.

But

At some point, don't you think that those two things combine and Netflix wants you to pay twice as much and join those subscription bases together?

That, I think, may be a problem, may not go as well as Netflix hopes.

I also worry a little bit about the culture clash that may exist.

Netflix at the time, very disruptive in deciding early on, we're going to make our own content, we're not going to acquire

a Warner Brothers or another studio earlier on, we're going to forge our own course.

Only now that they've established that disruptor model, now they're going out and trying to ramp up and get more studio assets.

Maybe some culture clash between the two workforces there.

I think from an investor standpoint, I generally skip over whether it was a good decision or not.

I'm stuck with it.

I focus on my own interests.

There, I'm always looking at tax impacts.

When it's an all-cash deal or mostly cash deal like the Netflix offer, then I'll have a gain or a loss if I own those shares in a taxable account.

If it's an all-stock deal, there's usually no gain.

If I hold on to the shares I get in exchange, the tax basis comes over.

And so, if there's a stock component and the deal goes through, I'm asking myself, do I want to own the Netflix stock I'm going to get?

If there's a spinoff, do I want to hold that?

That would be the discovery communications piece.