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As a Netflix employee, I echo this sentiment. Netflix is the best place I've ever worked (and I've also worked at Google). I'm sure any takeover would ruin

As a Netflix employee, I echo this sentiment. Netflix is the best place I've ever worked (and I've also worked at Google). I'm sure any takeover would ruin our culture of freedom and responsibility. I can't imagine dealing with siloed secrecy that I've heard about from Apple employees.

rocgf 10y ago
I find this interesting. While Google's culture and perks are fetishized in any sort of online thread, I haven't heard much about Netflix. As an outsider, all I have heard is that there is a lot of pressure to deliver, or otherwise you're out. Genuinely curious, what is better at Netflix vs. Google?
- drewg123 10y ago
  The basic difference is that Netflix still feels like a small company, in terms of bureaucracy and management overhead. At my level (Senior SWE, promoted to Staff SWE), Google was a place of secrecy verging on paranoia, endless meetings, and insanely huge amounts of process. You had to really work hard to get things done across organizations. Most people were just a cog in the machine, cranking stuff out. The meetings were huge, because all stakeholders needed to feel represented. Google was my first big company, and I'm sure others are worse. But Google was kind of a shock. At Netflix, most groups develop their own process. If you see a problem, you go fix it. If you see an opportunity for improvement, you just do it. There is a lot more independent work, and a lot more small collaborations, especially across organizations. I think most of this comes down to the Google "fungible SWE" concept vs the Netflix "Freedom and Responsibility" culture. For a concrete example, I had a bigger impact at Netflix in my first few weeks than I did in my entire career at Google. Within my first week at Google, I was still taking "new employee" classes and trying to sort out how to use the several different code repos my org used. Within my first week at Netflix, I'd identified and fixed a small regression in our FreeBSD TCP stack that was costing us 3-5% CPU across our CDN. The one thing that sums up the different cultures is business travel. At Google (at least when I was there), you needed to find airfare and hotel that was at or below the median price paid by other Googlers. If you didn't, you needed to get your VP to sign off on your travel expenses. At Netflix, you book things yourself, looking out for the best interests of the company, and submit your expense report & get reimbursed 48hrs later. The food was much better at Google, though. And I really miss TGIF, eng-misc, and memegen.
  - rocgf 10y ago
    Awesome reply, thank you!
IBM 10y ago
Your worries are pretty unfounded. The bigger concern is what Netflix would do to Apple's culture, not the other way around. Netflix is FCF negative and a fraction of the value of Apple and the value it produces. That being said, it would actually be better for Netflix if Apple acquired it. Right now Netflix depends on access to the capital markets to fund their growth, which is why they regularly issue debt to finance it. In the event of a recession or some turmoil in markets (Europe, China, etc) that send NFLX's stock price down and bond yields up, that would severely impact NFLX's growth trajectory (spending a lot of money on original content to acquire subscribers). The biggest threat to Netflix is Amazon and that's because they (and their shareholders) are willing to run at a loss for a long time. They have a lower cost of capital and generate FCF from other businesses. They would not be impacted by turmoil in the capital markets. As long as investing in video drives e-commerce sales (as it has), they have an asymmetric advantage over Netflix. Apple acquiring Netflix would give Netflix the same edge. If Netflix was bundled for free with an iPhone Upgrade Plan (or in the carrier's version of it) and it drove increased iPhone sales, the economic logic for investing heavily in original content is there. If Apple acquired Netflix, they would not make it exclusive to their hardware because that basically destroys the value of Netflix. They also would not integrate you into Apple because keeping Ted Sarandos and Reed Hastings around is key to executing the Netflix vision (but also because it keeps Apple, Apple).

rocgf 10y ago

I find this interesting. While Google's culture and perks are fetishized in any sort of online thread, I haven't heard much about Netflix. As an outsider, all I have heard is that there is a lot of pressure to deliver, or otherwise you're out. Genuinely curious, what is better at Netflix vs. Google?

drewg123 10y ago
The basic difference is that Netflix still feels like a small company, in terms of bureaucracy and management overhead. At my level (Senior SWE, promoted to Staff SWE), Google was a place of secrecy verging on paranoia, endless meetings, and insanely huge amounts of process. You had to really work hard to get things done across organizations. Most people were just a cog in the machine, cranking stuff out. The meetings were huge, because all stakeholders needed to feel represented. Google was my first big company, and I'm sure others are worse. But Google was kind of a shock. At Netflix, most groups develop their own process. If you see a problem, you go fix it. If you see an opportunity for improvement, you just do it. There is a lot more independent work, and a lot more small collaborations, especially across organizations. I think most of this comes down to the Google "fungible SWE" concept vs the Netflix "Freedom and Responsibility" culture. For a concrete example, I had a bigger impact at Netflix in my first few weeks than I did in my entire career at Google. Within my first week at Google, I was still taking "new employee" classes and trying to sort out how to use the several different code repos my org used. Within my first week at Netflix, I'd identified and fixed a small regression in our FreeBSD TCP stack that was costing us 3-5% CPU across our CDN. The one thing that sums up the different cultures is business travel. At Google (at least when I was there), you needed to find airfare and hotel that was at or below the median price paid by other Googlers. If you didn't, you needed to get your VP to sign off on your travel expenses. At Netflix, you book things yourself, looking out for the best interests of the company, and submit your expense report & get reimbursed 48hrs later. The food was much better at Google, though. And I really miss TGIF, eng-misc, and memegen.
- rocgf 10y ago
  Awesome reply, thank you!

IBM 10y ago

Your worries are pretty unfounded. The bigger concern is what Netflix would do to Apple's culture, not the other way around. Netflix is FCF negative and a fraction of the value of Apple and the value it produces. That being said, it would actually be better for Netflix if Apple acquired it. Right now Netflix depends on access to the capital markets to fund their growth, which is why they regularly issue debt to finance it. In the event of a recession or some turmoil in markets (Europe, China, etc) that send NFLX's stock price down and bond yields up, that would severely impact NFLX's growth trajectory (spending a lot of money on original content to acquire subscribers). The biggest threat to Netflix is Amazon and that's because they (and their shareholders) are willing to run at a loss for a long time. They have a lower cost of capital and generate FCF from other businesses. They would not be impacted by turmoil in the capital markets. As long as investing in video drives e-commerce sales (as it has), they have an asymmetric advantage over Netflix. Apple acquiring Netflix would give Netflix the same edge. If Netflix was bundled for free with an iPhone Upgrade Plan (or in the carrier's version of it) and it drove increased iPhone sales, the economic logic for investing heavily in original content is there. If Apple acquired Netflix, they would not make it exclusive to their hardware because that basically destroys the value of Netflix. They also would not integrate you into Apple because keeping Ted Sarandos and Reed Hastings around is key to executing the Netflix vision (but also because it keeps Apple, Apple).