So according to Bloomberg News, Blockbuster is looking for a way out — by hiring the firm Kirkland & Ellis to file for bankruptcy. But that story made it way even worse for the company. Their stocks plummeted 79 percent!!! In fact, take a look at Blockbuster on the NASDAQ today, compared to Netflix:
Yikes…
Personally, I’ve always felt that Blockbuster was kinda evil. So many Mom & Pop stores in my neighborhood and others across the country went doooowwwnnn once the Big Blue started to expand and set up its store fronts.
But for the insane competition against these smaller, local stores, competitor Hollywood Video, and services like Netflix, Blockbuster basically sucked. You could never find anything obscure, or old (hence the name Blockbuster, I guess…). And on top of that, some of the films would be edited out for “obscene or objectionable” material
Of course Blockbuster going out of business is bad because tons of people will lose jobs, but my hope is that people will be able to get back into the market to take the wheel. Perhaps several small companies, or one or two to rival Netflix on a more even plane…
March 4th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Blockbuster had it coming to them. For a time, I enjoyed their 3-movies-at-a-time, plus coupons, and being able to return mailed movies for in-store flicks. However, having since switched to Netflix, Blockbuster’s model was doomed to failure with Netflix and Hulu an ever present dark cloud over Blockbuster. High price to begin with, extra charges for streaming content, and the in-store selection was the same-old fare…
March 5th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
I agree that they had it coming. Too many other video rental places switched to digital formats or offered better value. Netflix pioneered a new service that took a lot out of Blockbuster.
Now with streaming and the likes of VUDU and Apple TV, their fate is kind of sealed.