By Dawn Chmielewski
LOS ANGELES, April 16 (Reuters) – Netflix Chairman Reed Hastings is leaving the streaming service he co-founded 29 years ago as the company regains its footing after it lost its $72 billion deal for Warner Bros Discovery.
In a letter to investors released on Thursday, Netflix said Hastings will not stand for re-election at its annual meeting in June and plans to focus on philanthropy and other pursuits.
The company’s stock plunged around 8% on the news of Hastings’ departure. The company’s co-founder is credited with helping to revolutionize how movies and television shows are delivered in homes, upending Hollywood’s business model.
“As the company enters a new era without Reed Hastings, advertising will play a bigger role,” said eMarketer senior analyst Ross Benes. “There’s no better time to amplify an ads business than right now with the upfronts looming.”
Netflix reaffirmed in a 14-page shareholder letter that its mission remains “ambitious and unchanged” – to entertain the world, providing movies and series for many tastes, cultures and languages. The company’s full-year outlook remained unchanged.
The company did not say how it plans to spend the $2.8 billion termination fee it received after losing the Warner Bros movie studio and HBO, and lifted its earnings per share to $1.23 in the first quarter compared with 66 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue rose to $12.25 billion, an increase of 16% from the year-ago period, modestly exceeding analyst forecasts of $12.18 billion.
Netflix, which long told investors that a Warner Bros acquisition was a “nice to have, not need to have” proposition, highlighted areas of future growth.
The company said its investment in expanding its entertainment offerings with video podcasts, and live entertainment – such as the World Baseball Classic in Japan – is fuelling engagement. It plans to use technology to improve the user experience and improve monetization, as advertising revenue remains on track to reach $3 billion in 2026 – a twofold increase from a year ago.
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles and Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Jennifer Saba and Matthew Lewis)
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