Netflix added a flood of new subscribers amid the coronavirus pandemic and also offered clues to a possible successor for founding CEO Reed Hastings, who on Thursday named the company’s chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, as co-CEO.
But it was investor disappointment in the outlook for new subscribers that helped drive down the stock 9.3% to $477.89 in after-hours trading.
Sarandos, who joined Netflix over 20 years ago, will also join 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,” said Hastings in a statement.
The company picked up 10.1 million worldwide subscribers during the April-June period, more than triple what it usually adds in that period.
The increase announced Thursday with Netflix’s second-quarter earnings eclipsed the gain of 8.3 million subscribers projected among analysts polled by FactSet. Netflix ended June with 193 million worldwide subscribers, including 70 million in the U.S. and Canada, its largest geographic market.