Bernard Arnault is the CEO of LVMH.
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Bernard Arnault says he made an early investment in Netflix, and regrets selling it prematurely.LVMH's billionaire CEO discussed the bet during a rare interview on the "Legend" podcast, aired earlier this month.Speaking in French, Arnault told host Guillaume Pley his family office acquired "nearly 20% of Netflix" shortly after its launch, and the wager proved to be a "huge success."But Arnault — whose company owns dozens of luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon, Sephora, and Tiffany & Co — said he "sold too soon" as Netflix stock has "multiplied tenfold" since his exit.Groupe Arnault invested $30 million in Netflix in July 1999, becoming its largest investor about two years after its founding, according to news reports from that period. At the time, Netflix was still privately owned and in the business of mailing rented DVDs to customers.However, Arnault's team sold much of the position by the summer of 2003, when Netflix's market capitalization was about $500 million — roughly 1/600 of the video-streaming giant's current value of around $300 billion.Ignoring dilution and any other factors, a 20% stake in Netflix would be worth about $60 billion today, and would have been worth over $110 billion when the stock peaked last summer.
