What NetFlix Owns That Amazon Wants…And It’s Not A Rental Service

Netflix stock surged today on news that it may be acquired by Amazon. The stock is currently up over 5% in trading today, at an 11-week high. Both Amazon and Netflix are in the midst of a full-on push to get digital video content into the living room. Amazon via its On Demand service, and Netflix through its streaming service(TC). The two are battling the likes of Apple (with the Apple TV) and to some extent Microsoft (though Netflix also works on the Xbox 360 — and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is actually on Microsoft’s board).
NetFlix may have struck gold with their $1 million challenge to developers who could come up with a reccomendation algorithm that beats theirs by 10%. The contest has been running since 2006, and supposedly there is a winner. Amazon is the king of consumer reccomendations, and this offering from NetFlix paired with their movie rental market share, could make a killer addition to the Jeff Bezoz empire. NetFlix’ (NFLX) current market share is $2.43B.