Facebook names Netflix CEO to board

Facebook announced Thursday that it has named Reed Hastings, chairman and chief executive of US video giant Netflix, to the social network's board of directors. "Reed is an entrepreneur and technologist who has led Netflix to transform the way people watch movies and TV," Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. "He has built a culture of continuous rapid innovation, something we share and work hard to build every day." Hastings, who founded Netflix in 1997, said that Facebook is "propelling a fundamental change in how people connect with each other and share all kinds of content. "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 said. The Los Gatos, California-based Netflix, which ships DVDs of movies and television shows by mail and also streams them over the Internet, has more than 23 million members in the United States and Canada. The other members of Facebook's board are Zuckerberg, Netscape founder Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz, Jim Breyer of Accel Partners, Donald Graham, the chairman and chief executive of The Washington Post Co., and Peter Thiel of Clarium Capital and Founders Fund. Hastings is also a member of the board of directors of US software giant Microsoft.