Netflix co-founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings has quit his position as chief executive officer. However, he would still remain an employee of the company and would serve as executive chairman of the board.
After Reed Hastings resigned, the streaming company will have several of its positions shuffle. It will have new co-CEOs in the form of Ted Sarandos, co-CEO and formerly chief content officer, and Greg Peters, previously chief product officer and COO.
Netflix has made Bela Bajaria, who was head of global TV, the chief content officer and Scott Stuber, head of global films, will be the new chairman of Netflix Film.
Revealing the new positions, Reed tweeted, “Ted & Greg are now co-CEOs. After 15 years together we have a great shorthand & I’m so confident in their leadership. Twice the heart, double the ability to please members & accelerate growth. Proud to serve as Executive Chairman for many years to come.”
The shuffle in the top positions took place as Netflix showed fourth-quarter earnings of 2022 on Thursday.
Divulging about Netflix’s succession plan, Hastings mentioned in a blog post about the plan going on for several years. Sarandos’ promotion as co-CEO in July 2020 was part of that. The company, as part of the same plan, promoted Peters to the position of chief operating officer in addition to chief product officer
Hastings further said, “Over the last two and a half years I’ve increasingly delegated the management of Netflix” to Sarandos and Peters. He continued, “It was a baptism by fire, given COVID and recent challenges within our business. But they’ve both managed incredibly well, ensuring Netflix continues to improve and developing a clear path to reaccelerate our revenue and earnings growth. So the board and I believe it’s the right time to complete my succession.”
Moving forward, Hastings also mentioned that he will be “helping Greg and Ted, and, like any good chairman, be a bridge from the board to our co-CEOs.” He also said, “I’ll also be spending more time on philanthropy, and remain much focused on Netflix stock doing well.”
Netflix reports over 7 million new subscribers
Netflix in the 2022’s fourth-quarter earnings, reported financial performance for the same period which saw the launch of the streaming platform’s cheaper, ad-supported plan, while the new Tim Burton comedy-horror TV series “Wednesday” continuously dominated the weekly Top 10 rankings.
In Q4, the streaming service added 7.66 million net new customers as opposed to its own prediction of 4.5 million. Additionally, Netflix exceeded its earlier goal of 227.59 million subscribers by ending 2022 with 230.75 million worldwide. With paid memberships increasing by 910,000 in the United States and Canada, 3.2 million in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, 1.76 million in Latin America, and 1.8 million in the Asia-Pacific region, there has been a 4% year over year growth in overall subscribers.
Talking about a fresh start, in a letter to its shareholders, Netflix wrote, “Now that we are a decade into our original programming initiative and have successfully scaled it, we are past the most cash intensive phase of this buildout. As a result, we believe we will now be generating sustained, positive annual free cash flow going forward. Assuming no material swings in (foreign currency fluctuations), we expect at least $3B of FCF for the full year 2023.”
