Netflix Co-CEO’s Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters discussed in a town-hall meeting the recent 1,000 layoffs announced last week. Some of the layoffs included top-executives such as film chairman Dan Lin and Chief Officer Bela Bajara, with Bajara being replaced by Peter Rice. This latter announcement caught employees off guard, first hearing about it from the press before any internal information had yet to be shared. The changes directly follow Netflix seeing its slowest revenue growth in the past three years, leading many to believe financial discontent to be the cause.
During a Bloomberg Screentime summit held last September, Sarandos said, “overall, we’re not growing as fast as I want us to, and we’re working on making that move faster.” In a memo sent to Netflix employees regarding the recent changes, Sarandos and Peters wrote:
This is one of the most dynamic times in the history of entertainment – and it’s a moment perfectly suited to a company like ours that’s built at the intersection of technology and entertainment. Now it’s on us to step up and meet the moment, together, like we always do.
During the town-hall meeting, Peters alleviated worries, declaring job cuts were over for the time being. These layoffs are just the latest in a multitude of radical reorganizations occurring in Hollywood. Disney’s newest layoffs let 300 employees go, while the freshly merged Paramount and Skydance have let go 2,000.
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