Key facts
- Bernard Arnault's family office invested in Netflix shortly after its launch, acquiring nearly 20% of the company.
- Arnault's team sold a significant portion of the Netflix stake by the summer of 2003.
- Arnault also received Google shares at a low price after investing in a fund that liquidated during the dot-com crash.
- He expressed regret over selling both Netflix and Google shares prematurely, noting their substantial subsequent growth.
Bernard Arnault, the CEO of luxury conglomerate LVMH, has revealed that he regrets selling his early investments in both Netflix and Google. In a rare interview on the "Legend" podcast, Arnault stated that his family office, Groupe Arnault, acquired nearly 20% of Netflix shortly after its launch, a move that proved to be a "huge success."
However, Arnault admitted he "sold too soon," as Netflix stock has since multiplied tenfold. His family office initially invested $30 million in Netflix in July 1999, becoming its largest investor. By the summer of 2003, when Netflix's market capitalization was approximately $500 million, Arnault's team had sold much of their stake. Today, Netflix's value is around $300 billion, meaning a 20% stake would be worth approximately $60 billion.
Arnault also shared that he received a "big batch" of Google shares, trading at $2 to $3 each, after investing in a US fund that was liquidated during the dot-com crash. While he noted they "made a good profit" when selling these shares, he acknowledged that Google, now Alphabet, has seen its market capitalization increase more than 130-fold since its 2004 IPO, reaching around $4 trillion.
Despite these missed opportunities, Arnault remains one of the world's wealthiest individuals, with an estimated net worth of $156 billion, making him the richest non-American on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.