In many ways, Reed Hastings and Elon Musk are a lot alike. They both co-founded major companies that have been pioneers in shifting our culture into a technological world no one could have predicted 30 years ago.
They both run large multi-billion dollar operations that get talked about on Fox Business, CNBC, and Wall Street chat rooms on all corners of the internet. Netflix is probably something you’ve used at one point in your life, even if you don’t anymore.
Tesla cars are possibly something you may use one day in your life if you haven’t already. Meanwhile, Both “leaders” are facing very different crossroads in their lives and careers right now.
One is having a pivotal moment where he could potentially be one of the most influential and powerful “rock stars” for the next 20 years. The other is having an existential crisis. Can you guess which is which?
Elon Musk has been on a Twitter tear lately. This while (successfully) juggling multiple large corporations and trying to acquire yet another multi-billion dollar behemoth in Twitter. He recently lashed out at Netflix, although not at co-CEO Reed Hastings directly.
Nevertheless, in our view, the “shot across the bow” was surely felt. In the face of what is nothing short of a crisis at Netflix headquarters, with their stock cratering over 25% in the after-hours trade today as we previously reported, many try to make heads or tails of what’s going on. Talking heads are saying that “password sharing and increased streaming competition” are playing a major role in Netflix’s current subscriber losses.
But many are speculating that there may be something more afoot, perhaps “woke politics” in movies, shows, documentaries, and miniseries. Netflix has been a cultural game-changer, hosting or producing many popular shows and movies these days.
But there has been outrage about certain political narratives they have been cultivating in the opinion of many on the right. Working with the Obama family, the controversial movie “Cuties”, shows like “Dear White People” and more have people questioning if they still want to shell out their hard-earned bucks to Hasting’s company month after month.
Some are even getting it for free already through their cell phone provider as a subsidy-style freebie. Nevertheless, we are not financial analysts and won’t make any definitive claims as to what the bulk of Netflix’s financial and subscriber struggles stem from, we’ll let you decide. But the world’s richest man has a loud opinion from his catbird seat:
“The woke mind virus is making Netflix unwatchable”
The woke mind virus is making Netflix unwatchable
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2022
Yes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2022
Earlier we reported on the devastating Netflix quarter in more detail:
Media Right News is not a financial advisor and all commentary related to stock and investment is for entertainment purposes and is merely our opinion. Stay tuned for more interesting updates in the near future.
Update:
Musk later added to the conversation:
“Can they please just make sci-fi/fantasy at least *mostly* about sci-fi/fantasy?”
Can they please just make sci-fi/fantasy at least *mostly* about sci-fi/fantasy?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2022
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