Netflix Chairman Reed Hastings is quitting the streaming service he co-founded 29 years ago.
The departure of Hastings, 65, comes at an inopportune time. The company is searching for new avenues of growth as sales slow due to competition, and after a potentially transformative merger with Warner Bros Discovery fell through in February.
Netflix on Thursday forecast earnings per share in the current quarter below analysts’ expectations and quarterly revenue growth that is the slowest in a year, according to LSEG.
The company’s stock plunged around 9% on the news of Hastings’ departure.
Netflix doubled down on its existing strategy to entertain the world, providing movies and series for many tastes, cultures and languages, in a 14-page shareholder letter released on Thursday. The company’s full-year outlook remained unchanged.
The company’s co-chief executive, Greg Peters, said that Netflix ended last year with more than 325 million paid members and entertaining an audience approaching a billion people. “But even given that number, we still have plenty of room to grow into our addressable