Netflix Rout Is Worst Since 2004, Punishing Roku and Disney, Too

(Bloomberg) — Netflix Inc. investors punished the company for its shock loss in subscribers and abrupt turnabout to embrace advertising after years of shunning it.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Shares of the streaming leader plunged 35%, erasing $54 billion of market value in its biggest drop since 2004. The swoon made Netflix the worst-performing stock of the year on both the benchmark S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes and sent shock waves across the media universe, sinking Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., Roku Inc. and others.

Netflix is seeking ways to stop a loss of subscribers and combat investor fears that its best days are over. Co-founder Reed Hastings had said for years that he doesn’t want to offer advertising and had no problems with password sharing.

But the company is changing course after losing 200,000 customers in the first quarter, the first time it has shed subscribers since 2011. Netflix also projected it will shrink by another 2 million customers in the current quarter, a…