The streaming giant Netflix on Thursday announced that Ted Sarandos will serve as co-CEO alongside co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings. Sarandos, a 20-year Netflix veteran, will also hold onto his title of Chief Content Officer and is joining the Netflix board of directors.
“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 in a letter to shareholders. The letter does not state if the move is effective immediately.
Hastings added in a blog on the company’s website that he doesn’t expect much to change “in terms of the day-to-day running of Netflix.” Hastings added that “our key executive leadership groups are unchanged,” and he further characterized as the move as “Ted’s well deserved promotion formalizing how we already run the business today.”
It’s a day of executive changes at Netflix, and Hastings noted in his blog post that these “changes are part of a long process of succession planning.” Succession planning can insinuate that the current CEO is gearing up to leave, but Hastings has no plans to depart anytime soon. Hastings noted in his blog post that he’s “committed to Netflix for the long term,” and in an earnings call with analysts, reiterated that he was in it for the long haul.
“To be totally clear, I’m in for a decade — let me be really clear on that,” Hastings said. “I’m in for a decade. As co-CEO, it’s two of us full time. It’s not like a part time deal.”
