Put Netflix's comeback on hold once again.
Shares of the Web's top video rental service spun downward more than 20 percent in morning trading, tumbling $17 to $62.98.
The sell-off comes a day after Netflix reported second-quarter earnings that were on the high side of the company's guidance, though profits are down 91 percent from the same period last year. That wasn't unexpected. What alarmed many investors was the company's forecast for the rest of the year.
Netflix honchos said the company may not add the 7 million new domestic subscribers that it expected and also that it could dip into the red ink as the result of its international expansion.
"We will launch our next international market (in the fourth quarter), which will drive us temporarily back into the red," wrote CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells.
Netflix was once one of the fastest-growing tech companies, but Hastings raised prices last summer and alienated a large number of customers. Months later he attempted to spin off DVD operations into a separate company, and that move was also heavily criticized before it was abandoned.
Since then, Netflix hasn't come close to recovering the ability to add customers in the way it did before last summer.
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