Netflix CEO Hastings reportedly confronted Peter Thiel on 'catastrophically bad' Trump endorsement

Michael Newberg | CNBC. Buckingham Research Group lowers its rating for Netflix shares to neutral from buy, citing concerns over the company's content spending profitability.·CNBC

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings, who sits on Facebook's (NASDAQ: FB) board of directors, wrote an email to fellow board member Peter Thiel castigating him for his "catastrophically bad" judgment in supporting Donald Trump for president, according to a report in the New York Times.

Hastings chairs the Facebook board's Compensation and Governance Committee, which is responsible for evaluating board members. Last August, ahead of a meeting of that committee, Hastings reportedly emailed Thiel to warn him that his speech supporting Trump at the Republican National Convention was reason to question his suitability on the board.

"Some diversity in views is healthy, but catastrophically bad judgment (in my view) is not what anyone wants in a fellow board member," Hastings wrote.

Both men are still on Facebook's board. Neither Netflix nor Facebook immediately responded to requests for comment.

Thiel has recently expressed misgivings about his support for the president in private events, according to a report in Buzzfeed, although he remains a strong supporter in his public statements.

Read the full New York Times article on Silicon Valley's culture wars here.



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