With Netflix Member Growth Zipping Again, Co-CEO Reed Hastings Steps Down

Netflix's founder and its chief executive for 25 years, Reed Hastings, has stepped down from his co-CEO role to serve instead as the executive chairman. Current co-CEO Ted

Sarandos will continue to lead the streaming giant, and he'll be joined by new co-CEO Greg Peters, who's been Netflix's chief operating officer for three years and chief product

officer for six.   The succession was announced Thursday as Netflix reported better-than-expected growth in the fourth quarter,  capping a turbulent year that earlier

included the launch of advertising, the company's first subscriber losses in a decade and the promise of a crackdown on password sharing.  Netflix, the world's dominant

streaming-video subscription service, said members increased by 7.66 million, to 230.75 million total, between October and December. That beats Netflix's October's guidance to add

4.5 million new members. It also beats analysts' average expectation, which was slightly more optimistic at 4.57 million new members, according to Refinitiv. The latest growth is

a rebound from the first half of last year, when Netflix recorded unprecedented subscriber losses.  Shares were up 5.9% percent at $334.29 in recent trade. Through

Thursday's close, the stock had lost more than a third of its value in the last 12 months as Netflix's membership-growth drama and worries about the wider economy made investors

anxious. In a separate post about his decision to step down as chief, Hastings wrote that he'd already been delegating the management to Sarandos and Peters for more than

two years.