Reed Hastings, the co-founder and chairman of Netflix, will leave the streaming giant's board of directors in June, the company announced Thursday, sending its stock down roughly 8 percent. Hastings, 65, will not stand for re-election at the company's annual meeting and has said he plans to devote his time to philanthropy and other pursuits. Netflix said his departure is not the result of any disagreement with the company.
In a farewell statement, Hastings reflected on a career that transformed how the world consumes entertainment. "Netflix changed my life in so many ways," he said, singling out January 2016 — when the platform became available in nearly every country on Earth — as his favourite memory. He offered a "special thanks" to co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, whose leadership, he said, freed him to move on. No successor to the chairmanship has been named. Hastings co-founded Netflix in 1997 in northern California — famously, according to company lore, after being charged a $40 late fee by the video-rental chain Blockbuster for a lost VHS copy of Apollo 13. He guided the company through its transformation from a mail-order DVD service to a global streaming platform now present in more than 190 countries with over 325 million subscribers and a market valuation of around $450 billion. He stepped down as CEO in 2023.
The announcement coincided with Netflix's first-quarter earnings, which showed revenue rising 16 percent year-on-year to $12.25 billion, modestly beating analyst forecasts of $12.18 billion. Earnings per share climbed to $1.23, up from 66 cents in the same quarter a year earlier. Results also included a $2.8 billion termination fee received after Netflix withdrew from a $72 billion bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery — the storied Hollywood studio and home of HBO — which ultimately agreed to be sold to Paramount Skydance, controlled by the Ellison family. Netflix said the Warner Bros. deal would have been a useful accelerator but stressed it had "multiple paths" to long-term growth and described the acquisition as a "nice to have, not need to have."
Despite the solid financial picture, investors were rattled. Analyst Richard Greenfield of LightShed Partners noted that while the quarter was "uneventful financially, the departure of Reed Hastings has spooked investors." Netflix reaffirmed its full-year outlook in a 14-page shareholder letter, saying its mission to entertain the world remains "ambitious and unchanged." The company highlighted growth areas including video podcasts, live events such as the World Baseball Classic in Japan, and an advertising business on track to reach $3 billion in revenue in 2026 — double the prior year's figure.
Hastings's departure marks the end of an era for one of the most disruptive companies in media history. His exit raises questions about the company's strategic direction at a moment of intense competition in the streaming industry, even as Netflix's financial fundamentals remain strong.