INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
David Wells said he's leaving Netflix to focus on philanthropy.Netflix Chief Financial Officer David Wells will step down after eight
years on the job, during which the streaming service grew into an entertainment giant that spends more on movies and TV shows than the
biggest Hollywood studios
Wells, 47, will help choose a successor and stay on until his replacement takes over to make sure the transition goes smoothly, Netflix said
Wells said he's leaving to focus on philanthropy.Wells guided Netflix's finances as the company defied skeptics' expectations of how
much money it could spend on programming without going broke, pumping billions of dollars into new TV shows and movies
Netflix has budgeted more than $8 billion this year to buy shows from rival companies and finance productions of its own.The growing output
helped Netflix boost its subscribers past 130 million globally and upend the TV business
By giving its customers the option to watch high-end TV shows at a time and place of their choosing, Netflix has undermined the traditional
pay-TV business and the very concept of live TV.Yet Netflix's spending has also raised concerns about the company's financial health
Though profitable, Netflix still spends more money than it makes each year, and has had to sell bonds to finance its programming.Wells's
successor will have to help Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos manage the spending while facing
stiffer competition."David has been a valuable partner to Netflix and to me," Hastings said in a statement
"He skillfully managed our finances during a phase of dramatic growth that has allowed us to create and bring amazing entertainment to our
members all over the world while also delivering outstanding returns to our investors."Netflix was still a DVD-by-mail service when Wells
joined the company in 2004
He worked under Barry McCarthy, the chief financial officer who took Netflix public
McCarthy is now the CFO of Spotify.Investors largely took the shakeup in stride, with shares trading down less than 1 per cent as of 12:25
The stock had surged 80 per cent this year through Friday's close.Wells won't be leaving money on the table when he departs
While most public companies periodically give executives unvested equity that's forfeited if they leave, Netflix awards its top bosses
fully vested stock options
Wells's unexercised securities were worth about $50 million as of Friday's close, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Brian White,
an analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt Co., advised investors not to read too much into Wells's exit, which follows a disappointing
quarter."Given the tremendous success of Netflix over the years and a future that we view as very bright, we believe the company will be
able to attract a high-quality CFO," he said in a note.(This story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is auto-generated
