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How Blockbuster Could Have Owned Netflix

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the video-store-killed-the-video-store dept.

schnell writes "Your age probably determines whether you think of Blockbuster Video as a fond memory or a dinosaur predestined for extinction. While the last Blockbuster rental at the last remaining Blockbuster video store took place last week, Variety retells a now-classic story of how Blockbuster could have bought Netflix for a song, but didn't because it failed to take the new DVD-by-mail and video streaming markets seriously. Who is next to join Blockbuster, Polaroid, Borders and Best Buy on the ash heap of superseded retail business models?"

3 of 385 comments (clear)

  1. Pretty much. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I remember when netflix first started out, it took blockbuster YEARS to FINALLY get a dvd by mail system, and it was still overpriced as hell.
    They continued to make moves acting as a monopoly, refusing to believe they could ever have any competition.
    This was a fatal mistake.

  2. About Polaroid... by TheloniousToady · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Polaroid is already gone. For the last few years, ever since they stopped making instant film, Polaroid has been nothing more than a brand name to be licensed out (presumably, to attract folks who still have fond memories of instant film.) For example, all those cheap portable Polaroid-brand DVD players are made by somebody else. That's in contrast to Best Buy, which is a real corporation, and Borders, which is at least a division of a real corporation, Barnes & Noble.

  3. Re:Every print magazine left. by The+Phantom+Mensch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm not sure I'd right off the USPS. Their parcel business seems to be growing rapidly, with very competitive prices for small fixed price boxes.

    I think the big shopping mall anchor stores (Macy's, JC Penney, etc) are all likely to fail in the next 20 years. Sears is already a dead man walking, Penney's is close and the others are living on borrowed time.