After filing for bankruptcy, Blockbuster will now be auctioning its operation off to the highest bidder.
On Monday, Blockbuster announced that it will be auctioning off its operation to the highest bidder, after the management was offered $290 million for its international and U.S. subsidies. Without much hesitation the company has agreed to an arrangement in which the $290 million will be used as the minimum amount the company will accept for its sale.
After many years of successfully providing movies to their loyal customers, Blockbuster has been dying a slow and painful death at the hands of Netflix and similar, cheaper movie renting alternatives. In 2009, Blockbuster closed nearly 1,000 stores due to profit losses which didn't do much for the company's stock value. After the company's stock was taken off of the New York Stock Exchange due to its low value, the company was forced into a corner and filed for bankruptcy.
Now in the middle of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the company must first obtain authorization from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in order to hold an auction for its sale. Despite the grim future of Blockbuster, the company's CEO Jim Keyes is confident that the buyer of Blockbuster will have made a great investment.
"The purchaser will be able to take full advantage of Blockbuster's many strengths, which include an internationally recognized brand name, an exceptional library of more than 125,000 titles, millions of loyal customers, and a multi-channel content distribution platform," Keyes explained. "Because of its ability to deliver physical content (through DVDs) and digital content (through streaming), Blockbuster can offer customers the unique ability to access any movie, any time."
Blockbuster is expected to be sold by April 20 at the latest and any binding offers made must be able to close within 30 days of approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. While the auction and sale continues, the company's U.S. and international stores and operations will still be in business.
Does anybody here still use Blockbuster? Let us know in the comments below.
Let Blockbuster die. It's lived it's life, they were too stubborn to change with the times, they deserve it.
I'm not much into streaming movies. I'd rather have the hardware but, I'm a dying breed.
As far as renting movies... there's no advantage in renting rather than streaming so why rent?
Maybe Obama and the Democrats will deem Blockbuster to be "too big to fail" and too valuable in terms of unionized employee votes, and arrange for a taxpayer bailout, or government acquisition, as with GM and Chrysler. Stranger things have happened.
I like the fact that I can take my return envelope into the Blockbuster store 5 minutes from my house and get a free movie. Instant gratification. I tend to get 6-10 movies per week which is like twice what I could ever watch, so my dvd ripper and hard drives see a lot of use
Now, things would be different if NetFlix offered every movie for streaming. But since their streaming library is (so far) pretty small, and Blockbuster still gets a lot of new releases a month before NetFlix, I'm sticking with Blockbuster for now.
Hopefully my "grandfather" price plan will stay in effect after Blockbuster is sold...
I'll admit the rental of movies (.50-$5 per movie, depends on how old) at a store is not an economical choice for watching movies but the DVD/Blurays through the mail works awesome (Blockbuster Online, starts at $9) and the Kiosks (Blockbuster Express, $1) is dirt cheap for a rental.
I don't understand it! =(
I clearly get movies faster (in-store exchange), and sooner (28 days earlier), and better quality (by not using streaming), save money (no extra charge for Blu-rays) by using Blockbuster Online rather than Netflix. And BTW, they don't sensor movies anymore like they use to.
For a couple bucks more, you get the in-store exchange which really increases your throughput of movies (if you are close to a store). I am not a fan (yet) of the streaming. The streaming selection is very limited and the quality is not even close to actually having the disc. When that does happen, I will totally be in favor of streaming. Blockbuster customer service is awesome (at least for the last 2 years). A few of times, I was sent the wrong disc, so I just let them know via email. I got a free rental coupon I can take to a local store or I just take the disc to a local store and explain it to them. They give me a free rental on the spot. That's a lot faster than waiting for the next disc in the mail.
Although, Blockbuster Online does have streaming, and they have the latest movies (unlike Netflix), it is a pay-per-view model (kind of expensive). It would be more affordable if they could do an inclusive streaming package per month (so many pay-per-view movies per month or something like that).