• October 21, 2011

Reed Hastings, who founded Netflix in 1997, is learning the limits of his business philosophy. His attempt to navigate away from DVDs-by-mail and toward online movies and television shows resulted in a series of poorly explained pricing and service changes that alienated customers and Wall Street. Besides becoming the butt of late-night TV hosts’ jokes, the company may have lost as many as 600,000 of its 24.6 million U.S. customers since July, estimates Darren Aftahi, an analyst with Northland Capital Markets. The extent of the damage should be revealed on Oct. 24, adds Bloomberg Businessweek.