Blockbuster to close as many as 960 stores | Hacker News Reader

Blockbuster to close as many as 960 stores

msnbc.msn.com

9 pointsedw51913 comments

This has been a long time coming - actually the majority of blockbuster stores in my area have been closed for a couple of years - but Redbox keeps popping up. I think blockbuster will struggle with the kiosks since Redbox is already entrenched just as they've struggled competing with Netflix. I recently read an article (might have found it on HN) where the CEO of Redbox thinks the market for rental kiosks is limited to the next few years. He see's competition from the Internet and on-demand devices eventually taking over. But he said he was making a killing in the mean time.

I don't know how quickly they will die. A lot of folks will justify $1.00 for a RedBox rental and not the $40 or more/month for broadband internet.

Well, I know that I consider internet to be a necessity (granted, it's part of my job) and so I have to be spending that $40 no matter what. The $1 RedBox I don't have to be spending. Now, I'm sure there are people for whom broadband isn't a given expense, but I know that most of my friends wouldn't cut it out because they need it for everything from communication (skype, IM, email) to information (Wikipedia, news) to fun (hulu, youtube). And so the broadband connection becomes a given for things other than entertainment.

mdasen, I want your opinion on something. Can you drop me a line?

Oh they will eventually cut much more than that.

I agree. What stands out most to me is they're closing 960 stores IN A RECESSION. Recessions are when movie rental places shine. Everyone stops buying and starts renting.

If you can't succeed even when the scales are tipped in your favor then you probably can't succeed at all.

This will hurt them more than one might think at first. One of the selling points of their Blockbuster Total Access plan (the Netflix competitor) is that you can return movies to a store and pick up new ones. Unless their new kiosks will let you do this, it's another reason for many people not to pay for Total Access.

Standard natural evolution and an example of a business unwilling to transform or reinvent itself remain competitive and to out-innovate new entrants (i.e. Netflix and Redbox).

It's sad, on one hand, since I personally remember enjoying my adventures as a kid perusing the many aisles of Blockbuster's New Releases (and the oldies, too) but I've moved on to more innovative things as a consumer (having been a customer of Netflix and having rented movies from Redbox kiosks).

Blockbuster's example is no different than what we are starting to see happen to Microsoft (though that process is still early stage, there are the typical warning signs).

Is it an option to just shut a company down and give the money back to your investors before the courts force you to? Is there anyone left who doesn't see the handwriting on the wall for Blockbuster? I hate watching companies blow through billions over a decade or more and eventually end up disappearing with nothing to show for it. Seems like they'd be better off facing reality and folding on their own.

I see your point but technically that also means going down without a fight. As I commented above, even though we don't see any business model and product innovation from Blockbuster (aside from trying to copy/steal from Netflix's model), it's still possible that perhaps with the right minds/leadership/people/talent, Blockbuster could change and become a leader again (look at what happened to Apple, Inc.).

But at some point, when your liabilities far outweigh your assets and your brand is horribly tarnished, why not just start a new company?

It's a public company, so if you think they are dead, you sell the shares.

What could happen is that so many people sell shares that the price goes below what the fixed assets of the company are worth.

Usually that acts as a floor - the share price will not go below that. But it could be that the owners of the shares will vote to shut down the company, and disburse the value to all shareholders.

It's possible, but I don't know if that has ever happened before.

Much more likely is that no one will lend them any money and they will shut down that way.

Last night as I was about to drive past a Blockbuster near my office that I hadn't looked at in a while, I wondered if they would still be open. They were. I'm guessing this one will be one of the 960.

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