Netflix‘s stock has lost nearly half its value in the last 12 months (down from ~$124 to $68), and it sank yet further this week, bottoming out at a two-year low after the streamer posted Q3 earnings and lowered its profit projections for the fourth quarter.
This comes just after Netflix announced layoffs of 6% of its workforce, cutting around 1,000 people from product, tech, legal, and HR departments (and, btw, promising that “[o]ur business is strong and growing, and we remain on track to deliver our full-year forecast”).
It also fired longtime Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria and replaced her with Peter Rice, Disney‘s former General Entertainment Chairman. Film chief Dan Lin is out as well.
Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said Netflix tapped Rice because he “understands talent relations.”
“In a competitive market, creative talent have choices of where they want to work, and we want Netflix to always be the place that they love to do the best work of their life,” he said. “Peter is the exact right person to lead those efforts in the U.S. and around the world. Now, that’s a key aspect of what I believe Peter can improve on looking forward.”
Sources familiar with the matter told Variety Bajaria (who was a big player in securing the streamer’s subscriber-base-building deals with WWE and the NFL and was not generally considered under threat for ousting) is being used as a “scapegoat” for Netflix’s issues.
“People always blame the content,” one person said, “but you don’t lay off 1,000 people unless there’s a big problem with the business model.”
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