Read this Friday’s edition of the FolhaMercado newsletter (24) – 02/24/2023 – Market

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Netflix cuts prices to open up new markets

Netflix confirmed this Thursday that it has reduced prices for its plans in some countries, in an unusual tactic for the current moment of streaming, characterized by cost cutting after the boom observed in the pandemic.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the cuts are focused on more than 30 markets where the streaming pioneer does not have a strong presence, such as countries in the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Latin America and Asia.

Sought in Brazil, Netflix did not immediately comment on the matter.

Which explains: The strategy, which takes into account the price cut by up to half in some locations, is an attempt by Netflix to diversify its operations beyond the large markets in which it is already strong and where there is a stabilization in the number of new subscriptions.

The bet contrasts with the company’s idea for centers like the US, Europe and Brazil, where it should soon start charging an additional fee for sharing passwords between people who don’t live in the same house.

• We show here how the billing should work.

For those markets, the company also made a cheaper, ad-supported subscription version available last year.

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What explains the ‘crisis boom’?

Announcements of debt renegotiations by companies, mainly those linked to retail and consumption, have popped up in recent weeks in the Brazilian market, helping to bring down the shares of these companies on the Stock Exchange.

Why did the beginning of 2023 concentrate this “boom of crises”? It is a combination of structural factors, such as high interest rates, and a nervous credit market after the outbreak of the Americanas accounting scandal.

• If the first factor makes it difficult for companies to rollover their debts, especially those that finance their consumers, such as retailers, the second made banks step on the brakes on the offer of credit and reassess the cases of companies in difficulty.

One that is going through this is the traditional fashion retailer Marisa, whose shares have accumulated a fall of almost 50% since the 2nd of this month.

• The company accumulates a debt of almost R$ 600 million, with R$ 200 million falling due this year.

They also went through processes similar to CVC and the energy distributor Light –which lives its own “astral hell”.

The most recent case of a company in trouble is that of Tok&Stok, which is the target of an eviction action in a logistics warehouse in Extrema (MG).

• Analysts point out that, after the pandemic order boom, the company did not prepare for the current sour scenario, and started to burn cash.

In an even more complicated situation there are Americanas and Oi, who filed for judicial recovery – in the case of tele, for the second time.

• In the case of Oi, it is complicated by the fact that a new order has been placed a few months after it has emerged from a long restructuring process, and this time without large assets to dispose of.

Opinion: The ghost of the credit crisis haunts the economy, but it is still invisible, writes columnist Vinicius Torres Freire.

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take a break

Regus Patoff, a businessman played by Christoph Waltz (Oscar winner for “Inglourious Basterds”), takes over a video game company on an interim basis after its founder is murdered.

• Patoff’s arrival in office happens thanks to a document signed by the founder shortly before his death, which ends up putting him at the head of a poorly managed company and on the verge of bankruptcy.

• His unorthodox methods, which include smelling employees in search of odors that bother him, and not very modern ones, such as the immediate interruption of the home office, generate discomfort among workers, who are suspicious of the paths that led him to leadership.

“The fact is that we are witnessing a change in the way of leading a business. Or not. We still need to wait and see, and to see if a change would be for the better. But it is a plot that mirrors reality, in particular what is the millennial workforce, which scares me with how conforming and obedient it is,” said actor Christoph Waltz in an interview with journalists.

beyond the economy

• Folha Explains: How is the War in Ukraine after a year; see video.