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Looks like Blockbuster is still hanging in there.
It’s strange to think that I can’t even remember the last time I was in a Blockbuster. And stranger to think that I’ll undoubtedly never be in one again.
blockbuster
Showing 10 posts tagged blockbuster
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Blockbuster Is Literally 1/10th The Chain It Used To Be
Alex Sherman for Bloomberg:
Dish Network Corp’s Blockbuster will begin selling mobile phones in its movie-rental stores as a test for Dish’s planned entry into the wireless business, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
This is actually the first decent idea I’ve heard involving Blockbuster in probably a decade.
Also fascinating:
Dish has closed about half of the 1,700 Blockbuster stores it acquired when it bought the company out of bankruptcy last year. When Blockbuster was owned by Viacom Inc. in 2004, it operated about 9,000 locations.
So there are now about 900 Blockbuster stores, down from 9,000 eight years ago. Insane.
“Netflix at first paid for 5 million customers and they got 25 million. But now people are saying, ‘OK, you’re going to get 30 million customers, so you’re going to pay for 30.’ If Netflix can get 40 or 50 million, they’ll be fine. But if they don’t get to 30, they’re probably going to go pfft.”
Dish Network head Charlie Ergen predicting the future for Netflix.
Keep in mind this is the guy who bought Blockbuster and spends the entire interview with Bloomberg trying to rationalize the move, suggesting that what was clearly a mistake was not a mistake — just a waste of time, and money. Right.
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(via buzzfeed)
Blockbuster Closing More Video Stores
Oh, I didn’t realize there were any more to close.
“Blockbuster sent me a release about its offer to “rescue” unhappy Netflix customers with a DVD rental plan that costs $2 more than Netflix’s one-DVD one (albeit with some extra benefits). It sort of comes off like the Hindenburg offering to rescue passengers who find Pan Am’s ticket prices to be too high.”
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DISH Wins Bankruptcy Auction, Buys Blockbuster Assets For $228M In Cash
Part funny. Part sad. Fully pathetic.
Here’s one great rundown of the history of this massive failure. Remember when Viacom bought them for $8.4 billion in the 90s? Then they IPO’d to raise another $5 billion? Remember when they tried to buy an also clearly failing Circuit City!?
The people running the company at the end remind me a lot of the famous old Iraqi Information Minister.
“We have them surrounded in their tanks.”
Blockbuster Is Said Likely to Get One-Month Reprieve on Debt - Bloomberg
Blockbuster Inc. will probably receive a one-month reprieve from creditors next week so the video-rental chain can prepare for a possible bankruptcy filing in September, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
What a colossal fuck up. Great example of resting on your laurels.
Their stock now stands at 17 cents — yes, cents — a share. And experts are valuing the company’s inventory of DVDs and its brand name at “tens of millions of dollars.” Pathetic.
