Of course, Netflix doesn’t have its own ad sales force, since it’s not even in this game yet. The company needs to build a framework for all this on the fly, figuring out the answer to questions like: Where should its ads be inserted? How long should they be? What’s the maximum ad load that would work?didn’t offer any hard evidence to support the possibility of a Roku-Netflix merger. Rather, Roku seems to have abruptly stopped employees from selling vested stock.
An exterior shot of a Netflix office building with a large Netflix logo sign at the top. Image source: FG/Bauergriffin.com/MEGAPartly, it’s because of the penny-pinching mode that Netflix is in at the moment. It’s laying off people, it’s canceling content deals, and pulling back from some business opportunities to preserve cash. The time doesn’t seem right, in other words, for a splashy acquisition.
Also, Wood has not been shy in one interview after another in conveying his desire to keep Roku independent for as long as possible. He’s also described as something that doesn’t feel like it would necessarily pass Netflix’s Keeper Test. Namely, he’s an independent thinker, and a fierce one at that. “ANYONE who thinks Netflix is buying Roku does NOT understand Roku’s biz model & how it cannot work inside Netflix,” media analyst Rich Greenfield tweeted on Tuesday. “Forgot about what Roku employees want, think about Roku’s biz model vs Netflix Not to mention the importance to Netflix of remaining platform agnostic.”