Posted on 08/27/2010 4:03:24 AM PDT by Zakeet
After dominating the home video rental business for more than a decade and struggling to survive in recent years against upstarts Netflix and Redbox, Blockbuster Inc. is preparing to file for bankruptcy next month, according to people who have been briefed on the matter.
Executives from Blockbuster and its senior debt holders last week held meetings with the six major movie studios to discuss their intention to enter a “pre-planned” bankruptcy in mid-September, said several people familiar with the situation who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of ongoing talks.
Blockbuster is hoping to use its time in Chapter 11 to restructure a crippling debt load of nearly $1 billion and escape leases on 500 or more of it 3,425 stores in the U.S. Maintaining the support of Hollywood's film studios during the process will be critical so that Blockbuster can continue to rely upon an uninterrupted supply of new DVDs.
[Snip]
Last week Dallas-based Blockbuster's chief executive, Jim Keyes, came to Los Angeles to hold individual meetings with executives at studios including 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. He was joined by a team of restructuring consultants hired to help turn around the struggling company, along with its senior debt holders who would likely end up owning a substantial portion of Blockbuster following bankruptcy.
[Snip]
Blockbuster stock, which last month was delisted by the New York Stock Exchange because of its ongoing low price and moved to the over-the-counter market, closed Thursday at 11 cents. The company’s total market value is $24 million.
In 1994 it was acquired by former owner [CBS] Viacom Inc. for $8.4 billion.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
... and in other news to you $*%(# Conservatives, the number you Freepers did on Dan Rather a few years ago, and Sumner Redstone's wipeout on Blockbuster, have done more to damage CBS News than my paltry multi-million dollar contract ... so there!
Netfilx notches another one...
>a crippling debt load of nearly $1 billion
The company’s total market value is $24 million.
Gee, whats wrong with this picture?
Netflix?.... I’d pin this more on the RedBox. These guys went from nothing to a box at every corner store, in a matter of a year or two.
I still don’t know how those Redbox boxes work.
Who or what puts in the DVD I want?, and how does all the returned DVDs not overflow the box?
Redbox has a single vending machine salesman doing dozens of boxes?
it is a brilliant business plan... I just have no idea how it works...
We haven’t rented a video in years.
. . . and has been going downhill ever since. Sure says alot about all of those haughty tauty Ivy League business degrees now down't it?
exactly, just buying one is less than going to the theatre.
Remember when Blockbuster wanted to merge with Circuit City a couple years back? That would have been a match made in heaven!
Blockbuster failed because they couldn’t compete against NetFlix and Redbox in terms of rentals on one side and Walmart and Amazon.com in terms of first-week home video sales on the other side. And that’s not including illegal downloading through download sites and BitTorrent, too.
Netflix + Redbox + No good movies have come out in the past decade = Blockbuster is screwed.
Redbox for a buck at every Royal Farm and McDonalds. Blockbuster had no chance.
I’ve rented movies from Blockbuster only a handful of times. This was mostly because they were $3.99 a movie when everyone else was a dollar or two cheaper.
Good riddance. Everything is going digital delivery. I’ve been saying this for years. The concept of getting in the car and going somewhere to rent a tape/disc and having to return it later or face a stiff fine should seem insane to everyone. If it doesn’t yet, it will soon. Same with shiny discs. On the way out completely. Flash is better and faster.
I haven’t been excited about seeing any movie made in the last ten years.
If the movies were better someone wouldn rent them
I also don’t like the thought of putting money in the pockets of the actors on the screen.
They spout their liberal crap and I support them?? I don’t think so. The older actors at least had sense enough to keep their crazy personal idea’s to themselves.
Watching old Rock Hudson movies where he plays the part of a man who loves women makes me gag.
I might add that watching Seam Penn as a patriot, doesn’t do my temper any good either.
Blockbuster purposefully targeted the local mom and pop stores back in the 80s. Then after they became the only option (besides Hollywood Video) they tried to get a special law passed in Utah that would ban concealed carry in their stores without them having to post a sign in the window. They failed.
Those @ssholes can KMA. I have never rented a single video from Blockbuster in my entire life. I’m glad they are going.
Someone can own multiple boxes. The box owner puts in the DVDs, but *I believe* that’s ALL they put in when a new title comes out - just the disc. So it takes up very little space. The box already contains a large number of generic, thin DVD cases. *I believe* the machine loads and unloads the individual discs from it’s supply of generic cases.
According to wikipedia: “As of April, 2007, kiosks had averaged 49.1 rentals per day and $37,457 a year in revenue.”
Redbox and even Netflix by mail will eventually fall to digital delivery.
My own experience with Blockbuster: They eliminated their ‘late fees’, but added in a ‘restocking fee’ or some such. We had two movies out past the due date. One of the movies went back fine, but the other movie was considered ‘stolen’ by Blockbuster— they bought a new copy and charged me $39 for it. When I pointed out that both movies had been returned but we’d only been charged for the one, the manager refused to refund the money and wouldn’t give me the copy of the movie that was ‘replaced’. I sent a nasty letter to corporate (to no avail) and never set foot in their store again.
Mrs. Prince of Space
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.