Netflix CEO Reed Hastings steps down

Even as the company added subscribers, it saw challenges. In the quarter ending June, it lost nearly a million subscribers, the biggest-ever quarterly fall in its subscribers. Its stock, a one-time Wall Street darling, fell nearly 38 per cent in the last year. 

Netflix founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings announced that he will step down after more than two decades at the company. He will hand the reins to longtime partner and co-CEO Ted Sarandos and chief operating officer Greg Peters.

Hastings had co-founded Netflix as a DVD-by-mail business in 1997, saying the idea came from his frustration at having returned a rental of “Apollo 13” to the local Blockbuster, a chain of physical stores in the US from where movies could be rented.

Here’s a look at the last year for Netflix under Hastings, and what’s expected to come under the new leadership.

Netflix has projected “modest” gains in subscribers in the March quarter and forecasted 4 per cent year-on-year growth in revenue during the period, with the help of its new revenue streams – an ad-supported cheaper plan and new plans for account sharing that Netflix believes will decrease the number of people who share their accounts.

Even as the company added subscribers, 2022 was largely a difficult year for Netflix. In the January to March quarter, it lost close to 200,00 subscribers and then in the quarter ending June, it lost nearly a million subscribers, marking the biggest ever quarterly fall in its subscribers. The company came under pressure after losing customers in the first half of 2022. Its stock, a one-time Wall Street darling, had fallen nearly 38 per cent in the past year.