Netflix reverts from Qwikster split

[DiabloD3]

Honestly, this is how a company should actually be ran.

They made a boneheaded decision, everyone called them on it, and they bailed on the decision and went back to the way things were.

Now, they should have actually sent a customer survey out before hand, but hey, they can do that next time.

[Gormo]

But 180-degree reversals are a potential signal that the company doesn't have a coherent strategy, or that management doesn't really understand their market.

Not really a problem in a highly autonomous firm, but I'm surprised to see this in a publicly-traded company like Netflix. Seems to have have worked for them, though.

[jpdoctor]

Well, the way a company should be run is not to screw up that badly in the first place.

Honestly, the whole episode seems like amateur hour over there in the south bay. I'd have to guess that Reed is in over his head.

[sschueller]

This makes it worse. It means there wasn't an underling cause important enough to split the company. Like licencing deals or possible acquisition that couldn't be disclosed etc.

[ensignavenger]

I would not doubt if they still split the company internally. They can have one website, one billing department, etc, but still have 2 internal companies. One company (probably the DVD business) just pays the other one for the services rendered (website, billing...)

This way, it is not a total reversal, just a reversal of the customer facing changes that were generally disliked.

[hernan7]

Or maybe they underestimated the cost of the loss of customer goodwill the split would cause vs the cost of the "underlying cause".

[9999]

Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence. I can see how it would have made sense to them to separate the companies, and I think in 5 years or so, that will make sense. I hope they still do the console game rental service that was going to be a part of qwikster, although that's a dying model too.

[damncabbage]

How to make unpalatable decisions:

  1) Make two bad decisions.
  2) Go back on the first.
  3) Hope nobody notices you didn't go back on the second.
  4) Praise.

[smoyer]

Another on-going discussion is here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3093450

[darien]

sanity prevails.

[zecho]

I grew up with a bi-polar dad. Netflix's actions lately reminded me of that for some reason. I expect we'll find Reed Hastings sleeping naked on the front porch soon.

[saturn]

Shouldn't it be "Netflix reverts Qwikster split"? I don't "revert from" a misguided commit, I revert it.

I do like the metaphor though.

[speedracr]

I always hear it as "reverting from something back to something else", but I'm not a dictionary. Then again, I should have chosen a more gripping title, anyway :). "Netflix: Qwikster is history!", "Netflix admits: We don't know what we're doing"

[Gormo]

It's typically "revert to", since the word means "to restore to a prior state".