Netflix Co-founder Reed Hastings Resigns as CEO

Netflix co-founder, Reed Hastings on Thursday announced that he is stepping down as co-chief executive of the company.

Hastings, 62, co-founded the company in 1997 when Netflix delivered its subscribers movies on DVDs sent in the mail, will become chairman.

Greg Peters, the company’s chief product and chief operating officer, will join Ted Sarandos, chief content officer, as a co-chief executive. Sarandos was elevated to co-CEO in July 2020.

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Announcing his resignation, Hastings said in a statement:

“In the last two and a half years, I’ve increasingly delegated the management of Netflix to them.”

He noted that Sarandos and Peters had dealt with the challenges of the pandemic and upheavals in the streaming industry.

“It was a baptism by fire, given Covid and recent challenges within our business,” Hastings wrote.

“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,” he added.

Hastings said he planned to work with Sarandos and Hastings as executive chairman for “many years to come”.

He is one of Netflix’s largest individual shareholders, owning about 2% of the company, and has a personal fortune estimated at $3.3bn (£2.6bn) by Forbes.

Hastings started Netflix 25 years ago with serial entrepreneur Marc Randolph.