 Strong fourth quarter results for Netflix were overshadowed by the departure of Reed Hastings, the company's legendary co-CEO and co-founder. Is Netflix in good shape after Hastings' departure? When visionary CEOs leave their positions, it's a blow to the company's bottom line. After all, we prefer to keep CEOs who have proven track records of maximizing shareholder value and who are heavily invested in the company's success. Wall Street first reacted negatively to the announcement of Netflix co-CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings' departure, but this was before Netflix's rough year. Hastings has decided to take a less active position as executive chairman despite having steered the company to unprecedented success over the past two decades. Rather than elevating Ted Serandos, Hastings co-CEO, to sole CEO, Netflix instead hired Greg Peters, COO at the time, to replace Hastings on the executive team. It was not shocking to hear that Hastings would be leaving his position. The corporation has spent the better part of the last decade discussing succession plans, according to the upper management. Market participants appear more concerned with Netflix's performance in the fourth quarter than they are with the news surrounding the company's leadership shift. It would be an understatement to say that the quarter completely smashed expectations. Even after adjusting for fluctuations in the value of the dollar, Netflix saw a 10% gain in revenue, thanks in large part to a 4% increase in premium subscriptions. Despite skepticism about Netflix's ad-supported plan, the end outcome has revived interest. Investors shouldn't underestimate Netflix's content slate, even if some of the success can be attributed to reduced tiered pricing due to additional alternatives for worldwide subscribers and commercials. Overperforming management's own expectations and likely driving conversions were the company's significant content victories in the most recent quarter. The releases included the highly anticipated sequel to the Knives Out trilogy, Glass Onion, and Netflix's third most popular series ever, Wednesday. As a result, Netflix's bottom line was significantly better than expected, with free cash flow of almost $300 million. Although Netflix's cash flow has been volatile throughout its history due to the company's iterative approach to creating original content, management has stated that the company anticipates generating sustainable, positive annual free cash flows going forward. This is supported by the fact that management has projected free cash flows of more than $3 billion for all of 2023.