Technology has changed everything so much. It is far easier to do things than it was a couple of decades ago. The internet has changed the way people can access entertainment and media. Even before a decade ago the only way you could watch a movie was to go to a movie theatre or buy a CD. All of that has changed now. Today you don’t have to go to a movie theatre to watch a movie. All you need is a mobile phone and internet connection. You can stream any movie you want. Even though there were few platforms before they are not as popular as the ones that are present today.
If you have a subscription to one of the movie streaming services you can watch anything from their library. Does any movie streaming platform come to your mind that made this trend popular? If you are thinking about Netflix then you are absolutely right me Netflix is the platform that has revolutionized the way people watch movies and shows. In the past few years, Netflix has become one of the most popular and favorite platforms for millennials. It has been able to do this because it was able to give the audience maximum entertainment at the comfort of their homes. But do you know who owns it? Probably not. This article will tell you that.
But before getting into the ownership details let’s see how it all started.
Page Contents
History of Netflix
Most of the people who know about Netflix only know it as an online platform that streams movies. But this is not how the company was when it first started. Netflix started out as a company that deals with sales and rentals of DVDs. It was founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in 1997. Before finding Netflix Reed Hastings owned Pure Atria where Marc Randolph worked as a marketing director. Netflix was founded after Reed Hastings sold Pure Atria for $700 million dollars to Rational Software Corporation. He used $2.5 million to start Netflix. They wanted to increase profit through e-commerce as they saw the potential in it. But all of that seemed very difficult as it was a big task to deliver VHS tapes without damaging them.
This is the time when they came to know about DVDs. After they made sure that the DVDs can be delivered easily without getting damaged they decided to rent them instead. After this Netflix became the first online rental store with nearly more than 900 titles. It used the pay per rent model that was similar to Blockbuster. In 1999 Netflix launched its monthly subscription model. After that, it started a flat fee model wherein you pay a certain amount of money and you could rent unlimited CDs without any due dates. It has seen losses and was offered a huge amount of money by Blockbuster for its acquisition. The offer was declined and Netflix saw a huge increase in profit in 2002. In the same year, the company had its initial public offering. Netflix started its streaming service in 2007 and we all know what happened after that.
Who owns Netflix
As you already know Netflix is a public company. There is no individual owner of the company. The shares are owned by many people and institutions. So let’s take a look at the individuals who own most shares of the company.
Reed Hastings
Reed Hastings who is the co-founder and CEO of Netflix owns the most shares as an individual. He owns 1% of the total shares of the company. The total net worth of Reed Hastings is estimated to be $5 billion.
Leslie J. Kilgore
She has been the non-executive member of the board of directors of Netflix since 2012. Prior to that, she worked as Chief Marketing Officer in the company. Leslie owns 0.02% of the total shares of the company. This is nearly 35,200 shares of the company. Kilgore is also a member of the board of directors of Nextdoor, Medallia, and Pinterest.
David Hyman
David Hyman worked as the secretary and General Counsel of the company from 2002. He owns 0.01% of the company’s total shares which more than 31,600 shares.
Now that you learned about the individual stakeholders you have to look at the institutional shareholders. This is important as 83% of the company is owned by these stakeholders. Let’s look at the institutions that own most shares.
Capital Research Global Investors
This company owns nearly 38 million shares of Netflix which is an outstanding 8.6% of the company. It has major stakes in many companies but Netflix is its second-largest holding.
Vanguard Group Inc
This is also a company that owns shares in Netflix. Vanguard Group Inc owns shares of some of the biggest companies in the world like Apple and Facebook. It owns 34.1 million shares of Netflix which is nearly 7.8% of the company.
BlackRock Inc
This is another company that owns shares in some of the biggest companies. BlackRock Inc also owns shares in Apple and Facebook. It owns 28.4 million shares of Netflix which is nearly 6.5% of the company.
Conclusion
Netflix has made it easy for people to watch movies. It has become more than a popular movie streaming platform. Netflix has become a cultural phenomenon. Today we often hear the phrase Netflix and chill. Not only movies but it also popularized web series. It releases all the episodes of shows at once so you can binge-watch. Apart from that you can watch documentaries and stand up comedy specials by the best comedians in the world. The popularity of the platform is only increasing. If you want to know how it became successful you can check out the business model of Netflix. Apart from that, you can also know about people who own popular companies. If you want to know who owns Buzzfeed then click here.
