News
Netflix CEO Joins Microsoft Board
Microsoft announced it has elected
Netflix
chairman and CEO Reed Hastings to its board of directors, as a member of the
finance committee. Previously, Microsoft's board consisted of only nine seats;
Hastings, 46, will expand
it to 10.
According to a Microsoft statement, the board on its Monday meeting also "declared
a quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share, payable June 14, 2007, to shareholders of record on May 17, 2007. The
ex-dividend date will be May
15, 2007."
Hastings
founded Netflix in 1997, which has seen the number of
its subscribers double over the last two years, to 6.3 million by the end of
2006.
Before Netflix, Hastings was busy establishing and growing
Pure Software, which eventually became of one of the 50 largest public software
companies in the world. (The company was eventually bought by
Rational Software, now a part of IBM, in 1997.)
Also a former president of the California State Board of Education, Hastings
has a master's degree in computer science from Stanford University,
according to his bio online.
As a member of the board of the world's largest software developer, Hastings joins a
star-studded cast of characters, including chairman
Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer. It also includes James Cash Jr., former James
E. Robison professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School;
Dina Dublon, previously a chief financial officer at JPMorgan Chase; and Raymond Gilmartin,
professor at Harvard Business School and former chairman, president and CEO of
Merck & Co.
In addition to Gates and Ballmer, other longtime board members include David
Marquardt of August Capital and Microsoft veteran Jon Shirley, who was once the
company's president and chief operating officer.
Charles Noski, former vice chairman of AT&T;
and Dr. Helmut Panke, former BMW AG board member,
round out the board.
About the Author
Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services, and .NET magazines.