Ted Sarandos and he totally and irreversibly changed how video is consumed with their streaming service Netflix. Forever. Now Reed Hastings is putting his best forward into the skiing business in the US, according to a feature in The New York Times.
The 63 year old billionaire plonked an undisclosed sum to buy a controlling interest in Powder Mountain a skiing area in the north east patch of Utah. The mountain receives close to 360 inches of snow each winter season which makes It a snow lovers delight. Summit, the owners of the mountain – one of the few private ones in the US (most of the rest are leased from the US Forest Service or are on a mix of private and publicy owned land) – had struggled to make a profit despite grandiose plans. Hastings a -an avid skier and snowboarder – jumped at the chance and put down $100 million of his own money and bought the 8,646 acre skiing property in September 2023. He followed that up by acquiring another 2,400 acres adjacent to the skiing area in March 2024.
Hastings plans to spruce up PowMow (as Powder Mountain is locally called) by installing four chair lifts, building two day lodges with restaurants, private rentals, retail stores and a 40,000 square foot lodge with a state of the art spa.
2,000 acres of this would be made private, he announced. An enclave at the top would host homes which would be sold at upwards of $2 million each. These would also carry an annual membership fee of between $30,000 and 100,000, which would give homeowners exclusive access to the private skiing area, apart from the 2,400 acres he acquired recently.
The rest of the mountain which would be left open to the public, will cost skiers $1,399 for a season pass (as against $1,259 previously), seniors above 75 years $1,049 (as against free). Additionally, there would be no limit on the membership numbers as has been the practice so far. The public area is slated to be opened in 2025.
Hastings told The New York Times that his move into the skiing business is not a CSR activity.
“I’m investing a lot of my money in Powder Mountain but my plan was never to subsidise it,: he said. “…I never saw this as a charitable endeavor. We are building a luxury experience on the private side of the mountain…We decided we needed to lure people here by offering a private experience they can’t get anyplace else..”
And no one knows better than him about providing experiences, especially if you consider how he transformed a movie rental business into one of the most valuable media and entertainment business globally.
