When it comes to digesting entertainment in the digital age, it's abundantly clear that the Internet is the delivery medium of the future. In delaying progress towards that future to protect their financial interests, media conglomerates and telecommunications giants are doing their jobs (and I sympathize with them for that), but they're also delaying the inevitable.
Netflix, meanwhile, is doing its part to speed things along, and consumers know that instinctually. That's why they still subscribe to Netflix even after the media industry yanked all the good content from its streaming service, having realized they were tempting too many people to drop pay-TV altogether and use Netflix to move to an online-video-only home entertainment set-up.
An acquisition of Netflix by a tech company like Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) or Microsoft (MSFT) could give it much-needed financial heft to push its agenda. Perhaps Hastings could stomach that outcome and cash in his chips, but a sale to a media company or a telecommunications or cable company would be surrender.
For Icahn and many Netflix shareholders, though, only the price tag matters, and that's why this could get real interesting real fast.
At the time of publication the author had positions in GOOG, AAPL and MSFT. Follow @NatWorden This article was written by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.Select the service that is right for you!
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