If anyone was looking for sharpened shivs at Netflix‘s upper echelon between the now exiting Reed Hastings and his successors over the abandoned Warner Bros bid, Ted Sarandos has some bad news for you.
“Sorry for anyone who is looking for some palace intrigue here, not so,” the co-CEO laughed on the streamer’s latest earning call Thursday.
“Reed was a big champion for that deal,” Sarandos added, pulling back the curtain a bit on the Netflix’s co-founder’s POV on the $89 billon bid the company made late last year for WB’s streaming and studio assets. “He championed it with the board. The board unanimous aborted the deal.”
After much palace intrigue at the White House and with Donald Trump’s self-declared “good friends” Paramount CEO David Ellison and his Oracle founder father Larry Ellison, the David Zaslav-run WBD took up Paramount on their $111 billion offer for the whole company. Netflix, which saw Sarandos at the White House when it all went down on February 26, declined to continue the bidding war and walked away.
“We have perfect alignment with with management and the board on the Warner Brothers deal,” Saranso emphasized, adding again that Hastings decision to not seek re-election to Netflix’s board and step away from his Chairman and “non-executive director” gigs had “absolutely had nothing to do with” the WBD deal happening or not.
With an ownership stake of about 1% in Netflix stock, Hastings will exit the streamer in June at the company’s annual meeting and the end of his current board term. “It’s very unusual for a founder to step away from the board of the company after succession, but Reed is no ordinary founder. Sarandos noted today of Hastings, who handed over the CEO role fully to his long time staffer and then COO Greg Peters in 2023. But Reed is no ordinary founder.
In more formal language, the proxy statement filed Thursday with the SEC said: “Reed Hastings, the co-founder and former co-CEO and President of the Company, currently serves as the Chairman of the Board. The Board determined that Mr. Hastings is best situated to serve as the Chairman given his role as the founder and former CEO. The co-CEOs also serve on the Board. The Board has appointed Jay Hoag as its lead independent director. Mr. Hastings has informed the Company of his decision not to stand for re-election at the Annual Meeting. In light of this decision, the Board will evaluate and determine the Board’s leadership structure.”
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