Netflix Founder Reed Hastings to Leave Board After Selling Hundreds of Millions in Stock

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) announced that on April 1, co-founder and board chair Reed Hastings exercised stock options and sold approximately $39.9 million (about ₩540 billion) of common shares on the open market under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, reducing his direct holdings to just a few thousand shares. He also disclosed that he indirectly holds roughly 21.15 million shares through the Hastings-Quilin Family Trust. The following day, Chief Financial Officer Spencer Adam Newman exercised options in two tranches and sold a portion of the shares, generating several million dollars in cash, while retaining tens of thousands of Netflix common shares.

In the Q1 2026 shareholder letter released April 16, Netflix reported revenue of $12.25 billion—up 16 percent year-over-year (approximately ₩16.5 trillion)—with both operating income and diluted earnings per share increasing. The company recognized a $2.8 billion (roughly ₩3.8 trillion) termination fee from the aborted Warner Brothers deal as other income, driving results well above guidance. Netflix reaffirmed its full-year revenue outlook of $50.7 billion to $51.7 billion and its operating margin target of 31.5 percent. Reflecting the after-tax impact of the termination fee, it raised its annual free cash flow forecast to about $12.5 billion. During the first quarter, Netflix repurchased approximately $1.3 billion (around ₩1.8 trillion) of its common stock and continued investing in new initiatives—video podcasts; live broadcasts of the World Baseball Classic in Japan; the BTS comeback live event; its kids’ gaming app “Netflix Playground”; cloud gaming; AI and generative AI; and the acquisition of film-technology firm Interpositive. Amid these developments, Hastings informed the board that he will not stand for re-election at the 2026 annual shareholders’ meeting in June.

Recently, Netflix live-streamed “BTS The Comeback Live: Arirang” from Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square as its first global live music event, and on March 27 released the documentary “BTS: The Return,” which chronicles BTS’s comeback process—part of an expanded slate of K-pop–focused live and original content. In the U.S., Netflix has broadened its live sports portfolio—following NFL and WWE rights—by debuting a new package that includes the Major League Baseball regular-season opener between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants, the Home Run Derby and the “Field of Dreams” game.

Founded in 1997 and transformed from a DVD-by-mail service into a global online streaming platform, Netflix now counts hundreds of millions of subscribers worldwide and stands as a leading media and entertainment company. Reed Hastings, who served for many years as CEO and board chair, co-founded the company alongside today’s co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos, under whose leadership Netflix continues to pursue a business strategy combining streaming, ad-supported tiers, live events, gaming and AI technologies.