Facebook has a new "friend" in the boardroom. Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings has been added to the social-networking giant's board.
The move may take some by surprise. Weren't some people touting Facebook as a Netflix killer three months ago? Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) began selling digital rentals of The Dark Knight through Facebook in March, but it was ridiculous to consider piecemeal rentals through a website app as any kind of legitimate threat to Netflix's model.
This week's board appointment pretty much confirms that Facebook and Netflix are friends, not foes. And it should be a symbiotic relationship. Facebook gets to pick the brain of the leader of a rare company that has excelled in premium digital distribution, and Hastings may be able to pick up a social-networking trick or two to help make his service stickier.
Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.
- FedEx (NYSE: FDX) posted better-than-expected quarterly results to end fiscal 2011, and the midpoint of its bottom-line guidance for the new fiscal year was ahead of where the pros were perched. I guess FedEx knows a thing or two about delivering.
- Dex One (NYSE: DEXO) shares soared 38% on Monday, after inking a local search deal with Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). It gave a good chunk of that gain back the following day, but clearly, local search is a good place to be these days.
- JANCO Partners upgraded shares of Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) -- from "accumulate" to "buy" -- this week. Looks like some good karma for Karmazin and company.
Until next week, I remain,
Rick Munarriz
