Reed Hastings will step down as chairman of Netflix, the streaming giant he co-founded nearly three decades ago, after deciding not to seek reelection to the company’s board when his term expires in June.
Netflix announced Hastings’s departure in its April 16 letter to shareholders saying that he wanted to focus on his philanthropy and other pursuits.
Shares of Netflix fell about 8 percent in after-hours trading following the earnings release and leadership news.
Netflix reported its revenue rising 16 percent year over year to about $12.25 billion and operating income increasing 18 percent to nearly $4 billion, both exceeding company expectations.
Eric Clark, a portfolio manager at Accuvest Global Advisors, said Netflix’s recent drop doesn’t change the bigger picture for the company. He said short-term swings don’t matter as much as long-term growth.
Clark said Netflix is still in a strong position if it can keep growing revenue steadily and generating cash.
“At $27 dollars a month, there are very few other services that give people more delight and more entertainment and the business is so predictable and consistent,” Clark said in an email to The Epoch Times. “If you look at the last couple of months, every day the market was down with some of the Iran headlines, Netflix was usually up on the day because of the stability of the business model.”
John Belton, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, said investors are closely watching Netflix’s engagement levels. He said that was key to the company’s long-term growth.
Belton said overall engagement was flat to up slightly, but was down on a per-user basis.
“Investors are going to be focused on that metric and trends there, given engagement is really the lifeblood of the company and is really what fuels the long-term revenue and earnings growth,” Belton said in an email to The Epoch Times.
Hastings’s announced departure comes about six weeks after a merger between Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery fell through.
Netflix had announced plans in December 2025 to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal valued at $82.7 billion. It was to combine Netflix’s global platform with one of Hollywood’s largest film and television libraries, including HBO, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, The Big Bang Theory, The Sopranos, and the DC Universe.
At that time, Netflix estimated the merger would expand Netflix’s content offerings, boost subscriber growth, and generate an estimated $2 billion to $3 billion in annual cost savings within three years.
In February, Warner Bros. Discovery accepted Paramount’s $110 billion proposal, concluding a months‑long bidding contest. Netflix stated at the time that the purchasing price had become too high and “the deal was no longer financially attractive.”
Paramount paid Netflix a $2.8 billion termination fee, which was recognized as “interest and other income,” after Warner Bros. terminated its agreement with the streaming service.
Hastings has gradually been shedding responsibilities with Netflix over the past few years.
In January 2023, Hastings said he had been delegating more and more of the day-to-day management of Netflix over the past 2-and-a-half years to Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters.
