Bela Bajaria Was Fired Wednesday. Next Week Netflix Faces Wall Street

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Bajaria learned on Monday that she was being replaced at Netflix. She was informed late Wednesday.

Bela Bajaria spent the bulk of Wednesday conducting layoffs at Netflix before hearing rumblings about her own position. Around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, sources say, she went directly to Ted Sarandos with the question of if she was in or out, and the co-CEO informed her she was being replaced. 

These same sources say that the plan was to announce Bajaria’s departure separately from the layoffs, both because of her senior position and because, unlike the others laid off, she was being replaced: Netflix has installed Peter Rice, the former Fox exec and Disney TV chairman. But those plans went up in smoke on Thursday, as news about her firing leaked before Bajaria, a 10-year Netflix vet elevated to the top role in 2023, could even tell her staff.

“I did not think that would happen for a second; this is a total reset,” a former Netflix executive says. 

Bajaria’s dismissal is a shocker in the wake of rumors that HBO and HBO Max chief Casey Bloys might have been offered her position amid David Ellison’s Paramount-Warners merger. Sources familiar with Bloys’ conversations with Netflix, as I reported last week, have maintained they were about an “open door,” not an offer. Nevertheless, with Ellison crowning Bloys head of streaming at Skydance, pushing out Paramount streaming chief Cindy Holland, Bajaria’s perch was thought to be safe for a while.  

Not so. “Someone was going to pay for their rough patch,” says a rival executive. 

The move at the top comes a day after Netflix laid off 1,000 people, or six percent of its workforce. No department was spared, with film and TV executives (including Doug Belgrad and Lisa Lang McMullen) joining those in tech, product, legal and human resources. Staffers received pink slips via email Wednesday, hours before their inboxes were shut down at 2 p.m.

Tuesday’s Q3 earnings report will train a spotlight on Netflix’s no good, very bad year. Netflix stock is down roughly 35 percent since the company’s failed bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery last year, and closed Thursday at a little over $72 a share (down from its $120 share price last October).

“Q3 is probably going to be the worst quarter in the last five years for Netflix,” an insider said, speaking to The Ankler ahead of the Bajaria news. “There have been no hits, and nothing is resonating or breaking out, and the layoffs are to distract from that.” 

The layoffs are the latest bout of less-than-ideal news at Netflix, which this year has weathered an engagement problem, a sophomore slump and slower growth than Sarandos would like. The global streaming leader does, however, have a pocket full of cash after getting a $2.8 billion breakup fee from Ellison’s Skydance in February after failing to win the auction for Warners.

As for what’s ahead, sources say Netflix continues to court rivals like Disney, Fox and NBCUniversal for cable-like “channels” on its platform. 

But Bajaria’s firing may be only the beginning of Netflix’s reset. Behind the scenes, department heads were told to identify expendable employees, executives were pitching rival media companies on an unlikely new strategy, and insiders were bracing for what one called the streamer’s worst quarter in five years.

Here’s what Elaine Low and I learned about the upheaval inside Netflix — and what comes next.