14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook has announced a somewhat surprising addition to its board of directors, Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings will join to become the sixth member of the board.
While the reason behind the move is left to speculation, adding Hastings has some advantages and he may be a good fit for the Facebook board and for CEO Mark Zuckerberg in particular.
"Reed is an entrepreneur and technologist who has led Netflix to transform the way people watch movies and TV," Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, said.
"He has built a culture of continuous rapid innovation, something we share and work hard to build every day," he added.
"Facebook is propelling a fundamental change in how people connect with each other and share all kinds of content," Hastings said in the press release exchange of pleasantries.
"I’m looking forward to working with Mark and the rest of the board to help Facebook take advantage of all the opportunities ahead," he added.
Hastings becomes the sixth member of the rather small Facebook board of directors as he joins Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz, Jim Breyer of Accel Partners, Peter Thiel of Clarium Capital and Founders Fund, Donald E. Graham CEO of The Washington Post Company and Zuckerberg of course.
Hastings founded Netflix in 1997 and has led it ever since. He is also very interested in education reform, something he shares with Zuckerberg. Hastings is also on the board of Microsoft, which has a rather tight relationship with Facebook.
Facebook is moving towards media, there are rumors of a vast music platform and it has already experimented with movie rentals. Of course, a Facebook presence is a must for any movie, TV show or celebrity. So Hastings experience in this area could prove useful.
At the same time, Hastings took Netflix through an IPO several years ago, something Facebook will be forced to do as well in less than a year.