Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings to resign as chief executive

Reed Hastings is resigning as Netflix's chief executive officer, the company he co-founded 25 years ago, as part of a restructuring at the top of one of Hollywood's most powerful studios.In a blog post, Hastings, who launched Netflix in 1997 as a DVD-by-mail service, said that he has been delegatingmanagerial responsibilities increasingly. He stated that this is "the right time to completemy succession."

“Our board has been discussing succession planning for many years (even founders need to evolve!)”, Hastings, 62, wrote. “I’m so proud of our first 25 years, and so excited about our next quarter of a century.”

Ted Sarandos, who handled programming throughout Netflix's significant investment phase and was promoted to co-chief executive status with Hastings in 2020, and chief operations officer Greg Peters have been appointed as co-chief executives.

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Netflix shares increased by over eight per centIn after-hours trading.

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

Following in the footsteps of Microsoft's Bill Gates and Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Hastings will continue in his position as executive chair.The billionaire founder said he plans to “spend more time on philanthropy” but “remain very focused on Netflix stock doing well”.

(With inputs from agencies)

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