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Netflix Rattles Investors by Ending Subscriber Disclosures — but Apple’s Similar Strategy in 2018 With iPhones Was a Big Success
Netflix stock fell on news it will stop reporting subscriber totals, but investors adapted to Apple's move to stop disclosing iPhone unit sales.
“A unit of sale is less relevant to us today than it was in the past,” Apple’s CFO told investors then — messaging Netflix echoed, explaining its belief that subscriber totals aren’t as meaningful as user engagement or financial metrics like revenue and operating margin. Wall Street, of course, adapted to Apple’s revised reporting scheme: The stock has increased more than fourfold since the end of 2018, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world (although shares are down 11% year to date on concerns including a drop in iPhone sales in China). Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters, on the earnings call Thursday, boiled down the decision to withhold subscriber metrics like this: The number of members times the monthly price is “increasingly less accurate in capturing the state of the business.”
Or read this on Variety