Tuesday, March 19

Netflix is said to have poached CFO from Activision Blizzard

Netflix is expected to report in the next few days that it has poached media finance veteran Spencer Neumann from Activision Blizzard to be its chief financial officer (CFO), a source comfortable with the issue told Reuters.

Neumann will begin at Netflix in early 2019, the source said.

Prior on Monday, Activision Blizzard said in a regulatory filing that it intended to fire Neumann for an unspecified reason. The video game organization declined to remark on this report.

Neumann has served in a variety of finance roles including at Walt Disney. He replaces David Wells, who in August said he planned to step down after 14 years at the streaming media giant.

The source said Netflix, which is making more of its own films and series, would like its next CFO to be situated in Los Angeles with an attention on production finance. Wells is based northern California.

Activision in its regulatory filing said that it intended to terminate Neumann “for cause unrelated to the company’s financial reporting or disclosure controls and procedures.” It said that Neumann had been placed on paid leave.

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