Hastings stepping down at Netflix; Q1 revenue up 16%
April 17, 2026
Reed Hasting, the co-founder of streaming giant Netflix, has announced that he is stepping down as chairman of the company after nearly three decades. He helmed Netflix’s evolution from a postal subscription service to global streaming leader, but moved away from the chief executive role at the company in 2023.
“Netflix changed my life in so many ways, and my all‑time favourite memory was January 2016, when we enabled nearly the entire planet to enjoy our service,” Hastings, 65, said in a letter to investors. Hastings will consequently not stand for re-election at the company’s annual meeting in June and plans to “focus on philanthropy and other pursuits”.
Hastings gave gave a special thanks to the company’s co-chief executives Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, noting that their commitment to Netflix’ “is so strong that I can now focus on new things”.
The announcement came as Netflix reported a 16 per cent YoY increase in revenue to $12.25 billion (€10.3bn) for the first quarter of 2026, its first set of results since its failed bid for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD). The positive results were attributed to higher membership prices and a boost in income from advertising revenue on the platform – which remains on track to reach $3 billion this year, doubling YoY.
Addressing the failed deal for WBD, the letter to shareholders said: “Warner Bros would have been a nice accelerant for our strategy, but only at the right price. We have multiple ways to achieve our goals (including producing, licensing, and partnering) and we’re constantly seeking to allocate our resources to the most attractive opportunities to maximise the value we are delivering to our members”.