Citi analysts Jim Suva and Asyia Merchant claim that Apple could possibly buy Netflix in 2018 instead of launching its own video subscription service by taking advantage of President Donald Trump’s recent cut in corporate tax.

Apple has almost around $250 billion in cash but most of it is sitting overseas. The company has avoided repatriating cash to the US to avoid high taxation rates. However, under a new rule from President Donald Trump, Apple could bring about its cash sitting overseas to the US by just paying a one-time 10 percent repatriation tax.

Apple has reportedly already set aside $1 billion for its original TV and video programming ambitions as it aims to produce at least 10 original content by 2018. The company has been aggressively poaching high-profile executives from other media companies to bolster its own team. Apple is already working on multiple TV shows, with one of them including a TV drama starring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston. The company has also ordered a sci-fi show from ‘Outlander’ show runner Ronald D. Moore.

Netflix is among the most popular streaming services out there, with the company known for many of its original TV contents like ‘Stranger Kids’, ’13 Reasons Why’ and more. In fact, Netflix recently released ‘Bright’ on its platform starring Will Smith which garnered over 11 million viewers on its first weekend.

Citi analysts had claimed previously as well that Apple could buy Netflix but there have been no rumours on this front since then. While it would make sense for Apple to buy Netflix to bolster its original programming efforts, the chances of this actually happening look real slim to me.

Source: iPhonehacks