The movie rental business has changed drastically in the past few years. Before, if you wanted to rent a movie Friday night all you had to turn to was your neighborhood movie rental shop. Now the business has expanded with Red Box, where you can rent new releases and old classics for just a buck a day, and Netflix, where you don't even need to leave your home to get a new movie. These players have strongly increased the competition making it hard for mom and pop shops, little alone big movie rental stores like Blockbuster to compete in the market. Recently, the previous movie-rental powerhouse, filed for bankruptcy protection and said it plans to keep stores and kiosks open as it reorganizes.To compete with the new companies gaining popularity, Blockbuster did make some changes. The company ended late fees and started online and kiosk services of its own. However, it was still unable to keep its debt in check.
Blockbuster's future plans include closing hundreds of stores and continuing it's DVD vending kiosks, by-mail and digital business. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn will help steer the latest efforts to save Blockbuster, reviving a role he played long ago in trying to shape up the company. He has trusted himself into positioning the power of the company and this by time snapping up about one-third of Blockbuster's highest-priority debt. In it's filing it had about $1 billion in assets and $1.46 billion in debt.
No comments:
Post a Comment