Blockbuster purchases Netflix for $50 million in 2000
- Thread starter SportsGenius
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The plan was that Netflix (blockbuster.com division) would largely run itself on autopilot.
Given that Netflix was losing money, without hindsight it just seems like an obviously losing proposal.
I remember in the 1980s there was this huge trend of American companies buying out smaller companies... and then old executives (now demoted to division leaders) and middle managers to "remove some layers of management." This could work if it was say a soft drink company buying another. When it was Gillette buying a company that made toothbrushes? Worked as well as you might expect. One company called US Industries bough 1100 companies in 3 years and someone joked they should have called themselves One a Day. The process of big profitable companies buying smaller ones only to remove all the people that knew what they were doing was called by one stock broker "Diworsification"
This usually doesn't happen by the 2000s. You'll find exceptions of course/
If Blockbuster did what other competitors of their era did, they would probably let the Netflix founders run on autopilot 3-5 years before deciding they need to intervene directly. But by 2003 things should look good, so Blockbuster.com chiefs might get a bonus and be allowed to keep going as long as the money keeps coming in.
This ironically would not be able to save their core business.
Have Blockbuster also acquire Red Box (that could have happened as well) so then while Blockbuster stores eventually go out of business (although it likely takes longer) Blockbuster On Demand (TTL's Netflix) and Blockbuster Express (TTL's Red Box) are doing just fine. Blockbuster becomes a model case study of how a company evolves with the times and remains competitive.
You probably do still have a few surviving stores in out of the way rural areas where the WIFI is still pretty weak. You will also still have some sort of nostalgia/retro crowd in some areas that allows a few other stores to survive as well. I saw a feature on the news a few weeks ago that was about a surviving privately owned Blockbuster store somewhere in Oregon.
You probably do still have a few surviving stores in out of the way rural areas where the WIFI is still pretty weak. You will also still have some sort of nostalgia/retro crowd in some areas that allows a few other stores to survive as well. I saw a feature on the news a few weeks ago that was about a surviving privately owned Blockbuster store somewhere in Oregon.
You can't - its on the loosing side of the technology war that can't be won.
Even here in Australia (where bagging the internet speeds is a national pastime) the rental business went out the window as better internet was rolled out. In 2006 47% of subscribers only had access to dial up. Only 4 years later in 2010 that dropped to less than 10% on dial up speeds. And thats whether to access content legally or not.
However it wasn't just the internet speed:
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/technology-killed-the-video-store-20150506-1mrikr.html
Not entirely true. I know a place just a few blocks from an old apartment in Brooklyn that still rents DVDs, and are doing quite well. They rebranded themselves some years ago as a sports bar for movie nerds. They still have a massive and continually updated library, but now it is kept in the basement and accessed like Redbox, completely electronically. Evolution, as others have said, is the key. You need to offer something streaming can't: atmosphere. Theaters still exist, and it certainly isn't the price that attracts customers.
I agree and that was the point of my next post. If Blockbuster can survive, likely by acquiring Netflix and Red Box when they have the chance and switching their main business model to streaming/on demand services and kiosks a few brick and mortar stores will remain - either in areas with slow WIFI or because they serve a niche market specific to that area (similar to your example).
The last few stores did not close until 2018 with one remaining in Bend, Oregon - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...america/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.78aa7d30d935 so the notion that a more successful company overall allows a few stores to survive is fairly realistic IMO.
Lucius Verus
Banned
IRCC, the problem was that the managers of Blockbuster joints wanted nothing to do with online distribution which was in direct competition with physical rental. It made sense for the company's shareholders, but not the managers making decisions within it.
Have them adopt the same model as family video.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahki...video-and-its-400-million-owner/#5a1435d3da60