Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Joins Facebook Board Of Directors
Facebook just friended Netflix.
CEO Reed Hastings has joined Facebook's Board of Directors, according to a press release issued by Facebook on June 23.
"Reed is an entrepreneur and technologist who has led Netflix to transform the way people watch movies and TV," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, according to the release. "He has built a culture of continuous rapid innovation, something we share and work hard to build every day."
Hastings joins a board that includes venture capitalists Peter Thiel of Clarium Capital, Jim Breyer of Accel Partners and Mark Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz, as well as Donald E. Graham, the chairman of the Washington Post company.
"Facebook is propelling a fundamental change in how people connect with each other and share all kinds of content," Hastings said in the statement. "I'm looking forward to working with Mark and the rest of the board to help Facebook take advantage of all the opportunities ahead."
Facebook is close to 700 million users globally, though reports show that the site has lost millions of users in the U.S. in recent months. Netflix has over 23 million subscribers and growing.
As Facebook becomes more media-rich and Netflix tries to get social, Hasting's addition to the board seems like a logical move. Zuckerberg told The New York Times earlier this year that Facebook had held talks with Netflix about working together.
This is not the first time Facebook has dipped its feet into the pool of online media. In March, the social network partnered with Warner Brothers to offer a series of digital movie rentals for films including "Inception" and "The Dark Knight." Facebook is also reportedly teaming up with music streaming startup Spotify to create a feature that lets users see what their friends are listening to, or even listen to the same music at the same time.
Netflix appears just as eager to jump into the social game. When recently asked by AllThingsD why Netflix wasn't social yet, Hastings answered that it "should be," recounting the failure of the unpopular social feature Netflix Friends.
"People want to use Facebook," he said. "We’re working now to figure out the right integration with Facebook with proper privacy controls. Think of it as a five year plan, at least, to integrate into Facebook, social networks."
After Thursday's announcement, that process now appears well under way.
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The Huffington Post Amy Lee First Posted: 06/23/11 05:17 PM ET Updated: 08/23/11 06:12 AM ET