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Netflix shares jump after Oscars; Discovery shares fall following Scripps deal

Netflix Inc. saw its star rise during the week ended March 9 amid buzz about its Oscar win and executive comments on its programming strategy, while Discovery Communications Inc.'s shares fell slightly after the company closed its acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive Inc.

Netflix on March 4 scored its second-ever Oscar win for original documentary "Icarus," which looked into the Russian athletic doping scandal. The streamer previously won an Academy Award for documentary short "The White Helmets," in 2017.

In addition to the awards-show buzz, Netflix made headlines during the week as CEO Reed Hastings spoke to reporters at the company's Los Gatos, Calif., headquarters about its revenue projections and future programming strategy. Hastings predicted the company would grow to $15 billion in revenue in 2018, USA Today reported. He also said that Netflix has no plans to offer live TV, bucking a trend seen with some streaming rivals, and pledged to keep Netflix's platform ad-free, Engadget reported.

Netflix's shares ended the week at $331.44 on March 9, up about 10% from their March 2 closing price. Earlier in the week, Stifel analyst Scott Devitt sounded a cautionary note on the company's valuation, noting in a March 6 research note that the shares were up 70% year-to-date following a 55% move higher in 2017. He downgraded Netflix to "hold" from "buy," while raising his price target for the shares to $325 from $283.

Elsewhere in the media space, Discovery Communications saw its shares slip after the company on March 6 completed its acquisition of Scripps Networks, thus extending its lifestyle programming to include networks HGTV (US), Food Network (US) and Travel Channel (US), among others. The combined company will change its name to Discovery Inc. Executives have said they intend to pursue new over-the-top distribution opportunities via partnership or direct-to-consumer offerings following the deal closing.

Discovery said it expects the acquisition to be accretive to adjusted EPS and free cash flow in the first year after closing, including significant cost synergies. Kenneth Lowe, former chairman, president and chief executive of Scripps, was named to Discovery's board of directors, effective immediately.

Discovery's shares closed at $24.19 on March 9, down about 2% from their March 2 closing price. The stock lost about 3% in the first couple days after the Scripps deal closed, but it started to rebound March 9.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. was also back in the headlines during the week of March 9, as it looked to ease regulatory concerns about its pending $6.6 billion acquisition of Tribune Media Co. The company announced in recent FCC filings that it had executed agreements to sell TV stations in New York and Chicago in hopes of improving the odds of the Tribune deal closing. Sinclair said it would sell one or more stations in nine markets to comply with the Federal Communications Commission's media ownership limits, which prohibit a single broadcast station group from owning TV stations that together reach more than 39% of U.S. TV households.

Sinclair has reached sale agreements for WGN-TV, an independent station in Chicago, and WPIX-TV, a The CW (US) affiliate in New York, with undisclosed buyers. The company also intends to sell Tribune station KSWB, a FOX (US) affiliate in San Diego.

Sinclair's shares ended trading at $33.65 on March 9, down almost 4% from their March 2 closing price.

Meanwhile, social media giant Snap Inc. also saw its shares slide during the week amid news about cost cutting. Snap intends to lay off about 10% of its engineers, or about 100 people, online news site Cheddar reported March 7, citing sources. The Snapchat parent company has cut nearly two dozen other jobs across eight teams in January, which mostly affected the company's content division. Prior to that, Snap in 2017 laid off employees in its hardware and recruiting divisions, the report said.

Snap's stock closed at $17.88 on March 9, down about 1% from its March 2 closing price.