Every few months, a Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) buyout rumor is passed around the Web. The potential buyers range from Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) to Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), but to date there have been exactly zero Netflix buyouts. This is not one of those rumors, but it is something to consider.
If you research movies online, there's a huge chance you've encountered this Amazon property. It was an early (1998) acquisition for Amazon. More people visit it than Netflix.com and it is generally the first result when you search for a movie using Google. Of course, I'm talking about the Internet Movie Database, or IMDB.com as most of us know it. Check out its unique visitors compared to Netflix in the chart below:
Source: Compete.com.
If Amazon were to buy Netflix, it would overnight double the movie-interested Web visitors that could become Netflix subscribers. Minor changes to the IMDB movie page interface would support that.
Movies and outcomes
This would add to the potential revenue-generating outcomes when a visitor accesses an IMDB page, which would help them fend off Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) if it ever gets serious about Apple TV. By bolstering IMDB's position as the only place on the Web to research, buy, and (with a Netflix acquisition) rent movies and TV shows, they would give Web visitors zero reason to go elsewhere.
For more, learn why real Fools ignore buyout rumors.
