Jason Hall

Now, at the same time it's playing defense, Netflix gets to go on offense, too.

Getting all of that content, it can monetize it, but then it gets to reimagine it.

Think about the Disney playbook.

with the Star Wars and the Marvel properties that it's been able to reimagine.

We're going to get the same opportunity here.

It can take the HBO library, keep that on-platform in markets HBO already operates in, it has a streaming service in, and then, with its international business, take that HBO library and license it to itself.

Guess what?

HBO already has an ad-based tier.

That's an easy thing to keep doing.

It makes all of Netflix's ad inventory more valuable.

These are all really growth-focused things to do.

Now, here's the thing.

It's going to take a lot of debt to complete this deal.

Netflix had about $9 billion in cash at the end of the quarter, nowhere near enough to make this acquisition.

We know that servicing that debt is going to eat into Netflix's free cash flow.

Here's the thing, that number is about $9 billion a year.

over the last quarter, still on the rise, and doesn't include the cash flows of the assets and the operations they're set to acquire.

Overall, here's the thing.

We've seen Netflix lever up in the past.

When it made the move into making its own content, it took out a tremendous amount of debt to do that.