Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, the entrepreneur who transformed the media landscape and led the shift to streaming, announced Thursday that he is stepping down as co-CEO of the company.
Hastings, 62, who co-founded the company in 1997 when Netflix delivered DVD movies to its subscribers through the mail, will become president. Greg Peters, the company’s chief product officer and chief operating officer, will join Ted Sarandos, chief content officer, as co-CEO. Sarandos was promoted to Co-CEO in July 2020.
“Over the past two and a half years, I have increasingly delegated the management of Netflix to them,” Hastings said in a statement. He noted that Sarandos and Peters had dealt with the challenges of the pandemic and upheavals in the streaming industry.
“It was a baptism of fire, given covid and recent challenges within our business,” Hastings wrote.
“But both have handled each other incredibly well, ensuring that Netflix continues to improve and develop a clear path to get back to accelerating our revenue and profit growth. So the board and I believe the time is right to complete my succession,” she added.
Netflix has come under pressure from restrained consumer spending and competition from Walt Disney Co, Amazon and others who spend billions of dollars to make TV shows and movies for online audiences.
In the first half of 2022, Netflix shocked Wall Street by losing customers. The company grew again in the second semester.
Hastings said he planned to work with Sarandos and Hastings as chief executive for “many years to come.” He is one of Netflix’s largest individual shareholders, owns about 2% of the company, and has an estimated personal fortune of $3.3 billion (£2.6 billion) by Forbes. “I will also spend more time on philanthropy and remain very focused on making Netflix stock perform well,” she wrote.
Hastings started Netflix 25 years ago with serial entrepreneur Marc Randolph. Initially, its rivals were rental chains like Blockbuster, which went out of business in 2014. In 2007, the company launched a streaming service and shook up the media world, encouraging traditional and tech players to start their own services.
On Thursday, Netflix said it had ended the year with 231 million paid memberships and announced it had added 7.7 million new customers over the past quarter, better than the expected 4.5 million new subscribers it had forecast it would add over the past quarter. the term.
“2022 was a difficult year, with a rocky start but a brighter end,” Netflix said in its quarterly letter to investors.
Reuters contributed to this article
