Reed Hastings steps down as Netflix CEO

Reed Hastings is stepping down as Netflix’s chief executive officer, the company he co-founded 25 years ago.

In a blog post, Hastings, who founded Netflix in 1997 as a DVD-by-mail service, stated that he has been increasingly delegating responsibility.

“Our board has been discussing succession planning for many years (even founders need to evolve!)”, Hastings wrote. “I’m so proud of our first 25 years, and so excited about our next quarter of a century.”

Greg Peters, the chief operating officer, has been elevated to co-chief executive alongside Ted Sarandos, who oversaw programming during Netflix’s significant investment period and was elevated to that position in 2020 along with Hastings.

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 https://t.co/oYc0laqMXQ

— Reed Hastings (@reedhastings) January 19, 2023

The change occurs at a time when Netflix has lost more than a third of its market value since admitting its decade-long growth spurt had peaked. The task of reviving Netflix and guiding it through a more challenging period for the entertainment business will fall to Sarandos and Peters.

Hastings will continue in his position as executive chair. Although he plans to “spend more time on philanthropy,” the billionaire founder of Netflix said he will “remain very focused on Netflix stock doing well.”

Netflix has made two significant moves to support its business as subscriber growth slows: launching a less expensive streaming service with advertisements and attempting to curtail password sharing, a practice it had largely ignored when growth was brisk.

In collaboration with Microsoft, Netflix acted swiftly to develop an advertising tier, launching the service in November for $7 per month. The business expressed satisfaction with the preliminary results on Thursday.