Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, the entrepreneur who reshaped the media landscape and led the charge into streaming, announced he is stepping down as co-chief executive of the company on Thursday.
“In the last two and a half years, I’ve increasingly delegated the management of Netflix to them,” Hastings said in a statement. 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.
Netflix has been under pressure from restrained consumer spending and competition from Walt Disney Co, Amazon and others spending billions of dollars to make TV shows and movies for online audiences. 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. “I’ll also be spending more time on philanthropy, and remain very focused on Netflix stock doing well,” he wrote.