Netflix hopes to add another 9.4 million subscribers in the last part of this year. On Tuesday, CEO Reed Hastings attributed the discrepancy between the company's subscriber estimates and its actual figures to a "forecasting" issue.Nevertheless, Netflix's third-quarter earnings per share (EPS) beat estimates, at 89 cents versus the 68 cents forecast by analysts. The company's growth/marketing strategies for the international market seems to be paying off big time.

Netflix (NFLX) reported its latest quarter subscriber and user growth numbers had far outweighed Wall Street's expectations. The company known for hits such as Stranger Things and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, brought on 6.96 million total new streamers, which beat its own guidance of 5 million for the quarter.Streaming revenue grew 36% year-over-year, while global users hit 130 million paid and 137 million total members.

A Citigroup analysis upgrades its recommendation on Netflix . The online video-streaming company’s more than -15% plunge in stock price over the past three months is potentially an attractive buying opportunity for investors, according to Citi’s analyst Mark May  who raised his rating from “Neutral” to “Buy” for Netflix stock. May also mentioned in a note that the previous "Neutral" rating for Netflix was based to some extent on its high valuations;  the recent decline in the broader market has made Netflix stock prices more reasonable.He further added that the firm's  free cash flow burn is likely to taper off by 2018-end, and that he expects the free cash flow to turn positive in 2020 or 2021.  

"In light of the premium Comcast has agreed to pay for Sky, we and Disney have decided to sell 21CF's existing 39% holding in Sky to Comcast," Fox announced." Comcast’s final bid for Sky was £17.28 ($22.65) per share – which is  25% higher than its previous offer of £14.75 ($19.43) per share.  

Comcast Corp. and 21st Century Fox Inc.’s  race to acquire Sky Plc.will be settled in a one-day auction to be held this Saturday. Fox and Comcast will place their respective bids for Europe’s pay-TV behemoth, starting at 5 p.m. on Sept. 21 in London in an auction conducted by Britain’s Takeover Panel.

How to choose the best used-car dealer selling used cars online, travel sites, food delivery, home goods?As of August 21st, 2018 the largest holdings are Carvana (6.84%), ETSY (4.56%), Wayfair (4.53%), IAC Interactive (4.28%), etc.

Ending speculations, Netflix announces that it will not include commercials in episodes and movies. A spokesperson of the video streaming company said that the platform is testing the concept of adding “personalized recommendations” – versus commercial ads – in between an episode or movie, and the viewer even has the option to skip them. Netflix wants to study whether or not these promotional videos would help subscribers get useful suggestions.

According to a Bloomberg report, people who are familiar with the situation (but wished not to be named since the talks are still private) said that the e-commerce giant is interested in buying Landmark from Wagner/Cuban Cos. After online streaming of movies/TV series and music, Amazon might now be eyeing a ‘physical’ presence in the media business.Landmark Theaters is largely focused on art-house/ independent and foreign films and owns more than 50 theaters in 27 markets

Facebook will broadcast La Liga matches in India for free. By signing a deal with Spain's top soccer league, Facebook could be elbowing its way into the sports steaming services market, thereby potentially competing against traditional broadcasters (such as Fox's Star India’s network of over 60 television channels that brings sports, entertainment, and news to Indian viewers). The social networking giant will broadcast 380 first division La Liga matches a year in India and some of the latter’s neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

The company, however, said that it collaborates with credit card firms and banks to provide customer chats and account management services. 

MoviePass popular service owned by Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. traded on Nasdaq under HMNY lost 60% of it’s stock price in just one day.This happened just 3 days after the company announced a reversed 250 to 1 stock split when the price of the stock became $16 a share, but quickly dropped to below a dollar in just 3 days.   MoviePass is experiencing financial problems because they don’t generate enough revenue to cover their costs of taking 3,000,000 subscribers to the movies for free while receiving from them just $10/month.

Revenues came in at $711 million which was above estimates of $696.2 million, but monthly active users fell short of expectations by about 3 million. Much like Facebook, Twitter is dealing with increased public scrutiny about malicious use of its platform to spread misinformation, and it has led the company to spend a great deal more on security and resources to fix the problem.Rising expenditures led Twitter to adjust forward looking expectations, adjusting their EBITDA between $215 million and $235 million down from higher estimates last quarter. 

21st Century Fox has accepted Walt Disney Co.’s offer to acquire its entertainment assets. The $71.3 billion deal marks one of the biggest mergers ever in the U.S. entertainment industry.Disney has already agreed to divest Fox’s 22 regional sports networks that compete with its own ESPN, and therefore fulfilled the U.S. Justice Department’s condition for the acquisition’s approval. Disney’s first bid for Fox's assets came in December at $52.4 billion.

Though Comcast lost this battle, they did succeed in making Disney go $20 billion higher than they would have originally, which could constrain Disney's ability for future acquisitions.  And that's key.Fox already owns 39% of Sky, and in their bidding war with Comcast they are valuing Sky at $32.5 billion while Comcast has valuation pegged at $34 billion.    

Comcast decides to no longer bid for 21st Century Fox’s assets, ending one of the biggest bidding wars in show business.But now, Comcast ‘s stepping back potentially clears the way for Disney to go ahead with its $71 billion cash-and-stock offer to buy Fox’s assets. However, Comcast is now eyeing Sky Plc.

She points out to the run of Russell 2000 (the index of small-cap stocks) – is up almost 10% this year (through yesterday’s close). The run of FAANG stocks continues (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet).Where are we on the standard cycle of the investor's emotions: Optimism, Excitement, Thrill, Euphoria, Anxiety, Denial, Fear, Desperation, Panic, Capitulation, Despondency, Depression is anybody’s guess?

As we wrote in our previous blog, while the external events have significant influence on the markets, they tend to be short-lived.The “real news” are in the earnings and we are witnessing the blood bath for one of the high flyers – Netflix (NFLX).