Netflix, the streaming giant, has announced a change in its leadership with the departure of its co-founder and co-CEO, Reed Hastings, after 25 years at the helm.
The company’s board has appointed two executives to run the company together: Ted Sarandos, who has been co-CEO with Hastings since 2020, and Greg Peters, formerly Netflix’s chief operating officer.
Hastings won’t be leaving Netflix entirely, he’ll be moving to a CEO position on the company’s board, a common occurrence at big tech companies.
Netflix had a challenging year in 2022 due to increased competition from Amazon Prime and Disney+ and a post-pandemic slump. The company reported a loss of subscribers for the first time in a decade and its shares plunged. Although Netflix made a partial recovery in the latter part of the year, it’s still not growing at the rate it used to.
In the financial report presented these days, the new number of subscribers for the transmitter far exceeded expectations and finally made up for previous losses. However, its quarterly revenue growth was as disappointing as expected: 1.9%, compared to 16% in the last quarter of 2021.
Hastings, in his statement, has praised Sarandos and Peters and noted that he and the board believe the time is right to complete their succession. Following the leadership change announcement, Netflix’s share price rose more than 5% in after-hours trading. Although it is still below more than 35% for 12 months.
