Netflix shares fall on Q2 forecast as co-founder Hastings steps aside

Hastings will not stand for re-election to the company board at its June AGM and will instead ‘focus on his philanthropy and other pursuits’.

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings is to step aside as chair of the company’s board in June, the streaming giant announced in a first-quarter earnings letter to shareholders yesterday (16 April) that caused stocks to fall with its lower-than-expected forecasts for Q2.

For Q1, the company declared revenue of $12.25bn, year-on-year growth of 16.2pc, operating income of $3.96bn at a margin of 32.3pc and net income of $5.28bn, while diluted earnings per share (EPS) was reported at $1.23. Each of these metrics was higher than the forecast given in the company’s Q4 earning report.

However, the letter’s forecasts for the April, May and June quarter – in terms of, for example, revenue ($12.57bn), year-on-year growth (13.5pc) and diluted EPS ($0.78) – are pessimistic in comparison to stock market predictions, according to Bloomberg, which noted that Netflix shares fell by around 9pc as a result of the Q2 estimates.

In delivering its results and forecasts, the quarterly letter also outlined three “areas of focus” for achieving the company’s “goals”: delivering “more entertainment value” to customers, leveraging technology to improve its service and “improving monetisation”.

Netflix is co-led by dual CEOs Ted Sarandos, who earned $53.9m in 2025, and Greg Peters, who made $53.19m last year; departing chair and co-founder Reed Hasting was the CEO for 25 years after Netflix was created in 1997.

The letter referenced the abandoned deal for Netflix to buy Warner Bros, suggesting the price wasn’t “right” – rival Paramount agreed to buy Warner for $110bn in February in a deal awaiting shareholder and regulatory approval.

Sarandos and Peters paid tribute to the departing Hastings in the letter, calling him “a true history-maker”, the entertainment platform’s “biggest champion” and “part of our DNA”.

Hastings co-founded Netflix in 1997 with Marc Randolph and brought it from an online DVD rental delivery service that went public in 2002 into the realm of streaming. He is a board member of Bloomberg, Anthropic and various educational nonprofit organisations.

The shareholders’ letter said he would not stand for re-election to the company board at its June AGM and would instead “focus on his philanthropy and other pursuits”.

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