One of the facts of life of being a public company is having to report the occasional charge for something that just didn't work out. Sometimes, that can be related to job cuts, restructuring or an acquisition that flopped miserably.
And then there are charges for things that don't fit the traditional business mold. Like the $39 million in charges that Netflix took related to what the company described as "unreleased content we've decided not to move forward with." Netflix made the charge public as part of its fourth-quarter results, which it released this week.
But this wasn't $39 million worth of just any kind of "unreleased content." A source close to the matter said the charge was related to the dismissal of actor Kevin Spacey from the Netflix series "House of Cards" and the cancellation of other projects Spacey and Netflix had in the works. Among those was a planned movie starring Spacey as the late author Gore Vidal.
Netflix cut its ties with Spacey last fall after he was accused of sexual misconduct with a minor in 1986. Since then, more than 30 other men have leveled similar charges against Spacey. Netflix temporarily suspended production on "House of Cards," and then wrote Spacey's character, Frank Underwood, out of the series. Netflix then said the show would come back for a final season, this year, centered on actress Robin Wright's character, Claire Underwood.
On a conference call to discuss Netflix's results Monday, Chief Financial Officer David Wells didn't mention Spacey directly regarding the $39 million charge. Wells said the writedown was "related to the societal reset around sexual harassment."
