Netflix Investor Lost $4 Billion By Bailing On Company Two Years Ago

This month marks the two-year anniversary of famous investor Carl Icahn completely bailing on his Netflix stock. At the time, the decision was praised by financial analysts. However, it is being reported that Icahn lost out on $4 billion in gains from the streaming service company by selling.

In 2012, Icahn revealed that he was buying 10% of Netflix stock and was going to be paying an average price of $58.00 per share. The total investment amounted to $321 million and he amassed over 5.5 million shares.

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The following year, Icahn wavered on his position on Netflix and sold half of his position of the company's stock in October of 2013. His profit at the time was around $825 million.

Carl Icahn sold the stock against the advice of his son Brett, who remained bullish on the media service company.

"Given this opportunity set and the company's management team, which we view as exceedingly competent, we believe Netflix's valuation is still relatively low. In our experience, there are few companies at any given time in history that represent the pure life blood of a colossal secular growth category, and even fewer where the CEO of that company instills deserved confidence among the company's investors by repeatedly exhibiting both vision and the ability to execute on that vision," Brett Icahn and his investment partner David Schechter said in a statement.

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In June 2015, Icahn completely bailed on Netflix. His announcement was released via Twitter and it sent the media ablaze. During the almost three-year period that Icahn held Netflix stock, he made almost $1.9 billion.

Carl Icahn explained at the time that he felt the competition against Netflix was becoming too strong and that he wanted to sell out with the ability to list a massive gain on his books.

While Icahn believed the Netflix stock was going down, his decision would turn out to cost him heaps of money.

"If Icahn had simply held onto his initial position of 5.5 million shares -- split for 38.5 million -- the stake would be worth about $6.4 billion," The Motley Fool reports.

Even though Carl Icahn missed out on a massive chunk of money, it's fair to say that his bank account is still looking quite healthy after his original $1.9 billion overall gain.