Ted Sarandos has been promoted at Netflix to co-CEO, sharing the title with Reed Hastings, who also serves as co-founder. Sarandos joins the company’s board of directors as a result.
“Ted has been my partner for decades. This change makes formal what was already informal — that Ted and I share the leadership of Netflix,” Hastings said.
Sarandos joined the company in 2000 and has led Netflix’s foray into original content, which has made it a Hollywood power player. He will maintain his title as chief content officer.
“Having watched Reed and Ted work together for so long, the board and I are confident this is the right step to evolve Netflix’s management structure so that we can continue to best serve our members and shareholders for years to come,” added Lead Independent director Jay Hoag.
Additionally, chief product officer Greg Peters added the title of chief operating officer.
The announcements came alongside Netflix’s quarterly earnings, which were both good and bad. First, the streaming giant said it added another 10.1 million new subscribers — easily topping analyst estimates. But its soft guidance for its next quarter alarmed Wall Street; Netflix only expects to add 2.5 million subs for the third quarter this year. Netflix shares dropped more than 10% in early after-hours trading.
After adding its new subscribers, Netflix now has 192.9 million global customers.