![\"Netflix](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/35f0aeea630d566806a2ae519d1fc18c.jpeg\")
Netflix says the World Baseball Classic held earlier this year boosted its popularity in Japan, one of the coutries where games were played (MARIO TAMA) \u00b7 MARIO TAMA\/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA\/Getty Images via AFP <\/p>\n Netflix says the World Baseball Classic held earlier this year boosted its popularity in Japan, one of the coutries where games were played (MARIO TAMA) \u00b7 MARIO TAMA\/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA\/Getty Images via AFP <\/p>\n
Netflix shares plummeted more than nine percent Thursday as the TV streaming titan’s quarterly earnings failed to impress investors and co-founder Reed Hastings announced he is leaving.<\/p>\n
Hastings, who helped grow the revolutionary DVD-by-mail company into a global entertainment behemoth, will depart Netflix to “focus on his philanthropy and other pursuits” when his term as chairman of the board of directors ends in June.<\/p>\n
He ceded daily control of Netflix to co-chief executives Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos in early 2023.<\/p>\n
“Netflix changed my life in so many ways,” Hastings wrote in an earnings letter.<\/p>\n
“My all\u2011time favorite memory was January 2016, when we enabled nearly the entire planet to enjoy our service.”<\/p>\n
Netflix faces increasing competition from rival streaming services as well as short-form video platforms like TikTok that vie for consumers’ attention.<\/p>\n
The company based in Los Gatos, California, reported quarterly revenue of $12.25 billion, a result that slightly topped expectations.<\/p>\n
The share price slide came despite Netflix reporting profit of $5.28 billion, which was boosted by a fee received for the termination of a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery.<\/p>\n
During the recently ended quarter, Netflix declined to sweeten its takeover offer of Warner Bros, effectively ceding the media giant to a rival bid from Paramount Skydance after deciding the deal was no longer financially attractive.<\/p>\n
Netflix logged a termination fee of $2.8 billion related to the nixed deal, according to its earnings report.<\/p>\n
By not following through on the arrangement, Netflix will likely see the storied Hollywood studio and a group of TV properties — which includes CNN — fall into the hands of Paramount, fundamentally reshaping US media.<\/p>\n
Paramount’s deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery is in a regulatory and shareholder approval phase.<\/p>\n
The bidding war had drawn White House attention, with President Donald Trump insisting he had a say in the outcome.<\/p>\n
Oracle founder Larry Ellison is the father of Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison.<\/p>\n
Larry Ellison, a longtime Trump ally, largely financed his son’s takeover of Paramount and his subsequent bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.<\/p>\n
A victory by Paramount would see CNN — often the target of Trump’s threats and criticism — pass to Ellison family control, amid backlash that a Paramount-owned CBS would see changes to the White House’s liking.<\/p>\n
Netflix shares climbed after it stepped away from the Warner bidding, with analysts noting that money it saved could be invested in audience-drawing shows and its potentially lucrative advertising business.<\/p>\n
“Netflix won with investors when it lost Warner Bros Discovery,” said Emarketer senior analyst Ross Benes.<\/p>\n
“Netflix’s next challenge will be to truly diversify away from having subscriptions account for almost the entirety of its revenue.”<\/p>\n
– Baseball and ads –<\/p>\n
The streamer’s advertising platform continues to grow, and the company expects it to account for $3 billion in revenue this year, according to Peters.<\/p>\n
He added that Netflix sees opportunity in using artificial intelligence to make it easier for partners to customize ads.<\/p>\n
“As the company enters a new era without Reed Hastings, advertising will play a bigger role,” Benes said.<\/p>\n
Netflix is also pushing further into live sports, podcasts and games, executives said on an earnings call.<\/p>\n
The recently streamed World Baseball Classic was a hit on Netflix, according to co-chief executive Ted Sarandos.<\/p>\n
“It was the most watched program we’ve ever had in Japan,” he said on the call.<\/p>\n
“It was really exciting to see how this played out.”<\/p>\n
gc\/sla<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netflix says the World Baseball Classic held earlier this year boosted its popularity in Japan, one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":733473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,161223,92329,4659,77684,5005,56629,86623,161221,67,132,68,1021,182121],"class_list":["post-733472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-greg-peters","tag-larry-ellison","tag-netflix","tag-paramount-skydance","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-quarterly-revenue","tag-reed-hastings","tag-ted-sarandos","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-warner-bros","tag-world-baseball-classic"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116417743247204880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}