Ted Sarandos Insists “No Palace Intrigue” Over Reed Hastings’ Netflix Exit & WBD Bid: “Reed Was A Big Champion For That Deal”

If anyone was hoping for an unveiling of sharpened shivs at Netflix‘s upper echelon between the now exiting Reed Hastings and his successors over the abandoned Warner Bros bid, Ted Sarandos has some bad news for you.

“Sorry for anyone who is looking for some palace intrigue here, not so,” the co-CEO laughed on the streamer’s latest earnings call Thursday.

“Reed was a big champion for that deal,” Sarandos added, pulling back the curtain a bit on the Netflix’s co-founder’s POV on the $89 billon bid the company made late last year for WB’s streaming and studio assets. “He championed it with the board. The board unanimously supported the deal.”

Over the several months WBD was on the market and even after the Burbank-based studio accepted Netflix’s offer, Hastings publicly remained a Sphinx about the potential purchase. Looking for a schism in the Sun King’s court, some speculated that Hastings’ reserve was a sign of disagreement with long time right hand man Sarandos. Pointing to Greg Peters’ now rope-a-dope “we are builders rather than buyers” remark of October 8, 2025, the assumption, without any evidence, was Hastings was not on board with the rest of the Netflix board.

Today’s exit announcement added short-lived gasoline to those embers – until Sarandos poured a bucket of cold corporate reality on the whole notion.

After much palace intrigue at the White House and with Donald Trump‘s self-declared “good friends” Paramount CEO David Ellison and his Oracle founder father Larry Ellison, the David Zaslav-run WBD took Paramount up on their $111 billion offer for the whole company. Netflix, which saw Sarandos at the White House when it all went down on February 26, declined to continue the bidding war and walked away.

“We have perfect alignment with management and the board on the Warner Brothers deal,” Sarandos emphasized, adding again that Hastings’ decision to not seek re-election to Netflix’s board and step away from his Chairman and “non-executive director” gigs had “absolutely had nothing to do with” the WBD deal happening or not. 

RELATED: Netflix Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos & Greg Peters Saw Total Pay Dip In 2025, But Each Still Took Home $53M-Plus

With an ownership stake of about 1% in Netflix stock, Hastings will exit the streamer in June at the company’s annual meeting and the end of his current board term. “It’s very unusual for a founder to step away from the board of the company after succession, but Reed is no ordinary founder. Sarandos noted today of Hastings, who handed over the CEO role fully to his longtime staffer and then COO Greg Peters in 2023.

In more formal language, the proxy statement filed Thursday with the SEC said: “Reed Hastings, the co-founder and former co-CEO and President of the Company, currently serves as the Chairman of the Board. The Board determined that Mr. Hastings is best situated to serve as the Chairman given his role as the founder and former CEO. The co-CEOs also serve on the Board. The Board has appointed Jay Hoag as its lead independent director. Mr. Hastings has informed the Company of his decision not to stand for re-election at the Annual Meeting. In light of this decision, the Board will evaluate and determine the Board’s leadership structure.”

More poetically, Sarandos today, who had already praised the 65-year old Hastings extensively in the official statements included in today’s earnings letter, announced the non-employee exec’s departure on the earnings call: “Reflecting on Reed leadership here in Netflix, I was reminded of a quote from Max De Pree. He said, the first responsibility of a leader is to define reality, and the last is to say thank you. And in between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor. That sums up the progress of an artful leader.”

“Reed Hastings is the ultimate artful leader, and he leaves me and Greg enormous shoes to fill,” Sarandos, who joined Netflix in 1999, two years after it was created, concluded. “Now, in the spirit of an artful leader, work in progress, I say to Reed, thank you.”