List year:
2006
Rank:
18
Netflix was killing it in 2006. In fact, the DVD rental company had such an impressive business plan that in 2010 Fortune named CEO Reed Hastings Businessperson of the Year. Hastings was already hearing footsteps, he told us then, "The turnover in the S&P 500 is terrifying. Most of the time change in the world overtakes you."
And it did. Netflix has been struggling to regain its traction since last year, when it announced a short-lived plan to split up its DVD and online services. Prices would increase, and the DVD portion of the company would be called Qwikster, the company announced. Consumers were livid, and Netflix had to retract the whole shebang immediately. The stock took a dive, and it still has yet to reach anything close to its pre-announcement levels.
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