Netflix Reportedly Walked Away After Xbox Asked $800 Million for Its Game IP
Netflix reportedly offered Microsoft $500 million for seven years of exclusive film and TV adaptation rights to Xbox games, but the two sides never reached a middle ground. According to Matthew Belloni's What I'm Hearing…
Netflix reportedly offered Microsoft $500 million for seven years of exclusive film and TV adaptation rights to Xbox games, but the two sides never reached a middle ground. According to Matthew Belloni's What I'm Hearing newsletter at Puck, which cites three sources, the offer came from Bela Bajaria, Netflix's chief content officer at the time. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and her business affairs team apparently countered at $800 million. Bajaria was recently let go and is being replaced by former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice, and with her gone, the Netflix offer is said to be off the table. Netflix CFO Spence Neumann was reportedly one of the people who thought the price was too high.
Netflix has not commented on the deal, while Xbox told Puck it has seen "record-breaking interest" in its IP and still considers Netflix a valued partner. The two already have Minecraft and Diablo animated series on the way, and Netflix is also working on a Gears of War movie. Instead of one big exclusive package, Xbox is now said to be chasing smaller deals with more partners, which is pretty much what its new XP division was set up to handle earlier this month. That extra licensing money would probably be welcome right now. Xbox has missed Microsoft's executive pay target for the fifth time in six years, just lost its first chief operating officer, and Sharma recently told staff the division won't survive without new IP. Rice is also expected to go after more IP deals at Netflix, so we can expect the two companies to end up talking again.
Netflix has not commented on the deal, while Xbox told Puck it has seen "record-breaking interest" in its IP and still considers Netflix a valued partner. The two already have Minecraft and Diablo animated series on the way, and Netflix is also working on a Gears of War movie. Instead of one big exclusive package, Xbox is now said to be chasing smaller deals with more partners, which is pretty much what its new XP division was set up to handle earlier this month. That extra licensing money would probably be welcome right now. Xbox has missed Microsoft's executive pay target for the fifth time in six years, just lost its first chief operating officer, and Sharma recently told staff the division won't survive without new IP. Rice is also expected to go after more IP deals at Netflix, so we can expect the two companies to end up talking again.