Yahoo Finance Netflix’s finance chief to stand down after 14 years at the company
Netflix’s chief financial officer David Wells is set to step down after 14 years at the company and eight years in the role.
Mr Wells will stay at the US company until a replacement is picked from a pool of internal and external candidates, it was revealed on Monday.
Netflix is a video streaming business with a current subscriber base of 130m members in 190 countries.
During his time as finance chief, Mr Wells oversaw the company's transition from a mainly US-focused operation to an international streaming business.
The announcement triggered a fall in Netflix shares of 1.8pc to $339.72 (£266.01).
Reed Hastings, the company’s chief executive, praised Mr Wells who he said had managed Netflix’s finances “skillfully” during a time of “dramatic growth”, which saw it beat Disney to become the biggest entertainment company in the world in May.
However, last month Netflix missed analyst expectations for subscriber growth by more than one million users, in what it called a "strong but not stellar" quarter.
The streaming company revealed in its second quarter report that it had added 5.2m subscribers in the three months to June 30, below analyst forecasts for 6.3m subscribers and its own expectations.
Despite the wobble last month, Mr Wells says he will be leaving the company in a “strong financial position... [with exciting growth plans”.
“It’s been 14 wonderful years at Netflix, and I’m very proud of everything we’ve accomplished,” Mr Wells said.
“After discussing my desire to make a change with Reed, we agreed that with Netflix’s strong financial position and exciting growth plans, this is the right time for us to help identify the next financial leader for the company.
“Personally, I intend my next chapter to focus more on philanthropy and I like big challenges but I’m not sure yet what that looks like.”
Wells joined Netflix in 2004 and was promoted to chief financial officer in 2010.
Mr Hastings said: “David has been a valuable partner to Netflix and to me... I look forward to working with him during the transition as we identify a new CFO who will help us continue to pursue our ambitious goals.”
