Netflix CEO Investigated for Facebook Post
Can businesses get in trouble with the government for sharing good news on social media? Maybe.
CNN Money explains…
In a Facebook posting on July 5, Hastings said that Netflix customers were viewing more than 1 billion hours of video content a month. Information that the company was approaching 1 billion hours had appeared on the company’s blog the month before. But in neither case did the company issue a formal press release or make a separate filing with the SEC disclosing the billion hour statistic.
The posting was widely reported and Netflix stock rose 13% the day of the posting.
On Thursday, Netflix disclosed in a new posting, an SEC filing and a news release that Hastings and the company received a Wells Notice from the SEC. The notice says the agency staff will recommend regulators institute a cease-and-desist proceeding and/or bring a civil injunctive action for violations of the agency’s fair disclosure rules.
Companies have to publicly disclose information that may have a “material” impact on shareholders. Hastings said in his new post, “posting to over 200,000 people is very public, especially because many of my subscribers are reporters and bloggers.”
Subscribe by email
Like this article? Sign up for our email updates and we’ll send you a regular digest of our newest stories, full of money saving tips and advice, free! We’ll also email you a PDF of Stacy Johnson’s ’205 Ways to Save Money’ as soon as you’ve subscribed. It’s full of great tips that’ll help you save a ton of extra cash. It doesn’t cost a dime, so why wait? Click here to sign up now.
