Netflix looks to raise $1.5 billion in debt financing

In the span of 20 years, Netflix has gone from a (super convenient) Blockbuster knockoff to one of the most powerful players in media. Partially, that’s credited to Netflix’s technology, bringing streaming content to the mainstream. But Netflix’s success is also owed in part to its willingness to invest in its content library.

Netflix continues that investment today with the announcement that it will raise another $1.5 billion in debt.

From the official statement:

Netflix intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, which may
include content acquisitions, production and development, capital expenditures, investments, working
capital and potential acquisitions and strategic transactions.

While that might sound vague, Netflix is most certainly going to invest this capital in original content, as it has with earlier debt capital.

In fact, this is not a new strategy from Netflix. The company has raised many billions in debt to accelerate its push into original content.

The announcement comes shortly after a stellar Q1 earnings report, with 7.41 million new streaming subscribers, outperforming estimates and handily beating out last year’s growth of 4.95 million new subscribers. In total, Netflix now has 125 million subscribers across the globe.