Blockbuster Missed Chance to Buy Netflix
According to Hacking Netflix, a new Variety story titled “Blockbusted” has a former executive admitting:
We had the option to buy Netflix for$50 million and we didn’t do it. They were losing money. They came around a few times,” he recalls. Instead, in 2000, Blockbuster inked a 20-year exclusive video-on-demand pact with Enron as the energy conglom launched into telecom. Blockbuster canned the pact after nine months. Netflix is now worth $1.4 billion. Blockbuster’s market cap is about $850 million.
(h/t: Real Tech News)
Speaking of Netflix rumors, lot’s of talk about their download service being introduced soon and/or that the company is positioning itself for a sale. I trust blog rumors as much as I do message board chatter but the company is definitely on a roll from an execution point of view so I wouldn’t put anything past them at this juncture. (And some message board talk is spot on so there you go.)
Independent Sources last wrote about Netflix here.
Update: A commentor suggested that Netflix stock would double yet again as soon as they introduce porn into the mix. His suggestion was that they call it “Nightflix” or “Couples Only.” I’ll add “Netflix After Dark,” “Netflixxx” and “Netflix: Not just for families anymore.”
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October 10th, 2005 at 10:55 am
Netflix worth $1.4 Billion? The day they add porn to their library they will be worth $3 billion. They won’t call it porn, of course, but will probably use a euphanism like “Couples Only”. Probably a separate domain, like “Nightflix”, that is still part of your Netflix account, and uses the same red envelopes so that the postman doesn’t know you’re a horndog. What haven’t the VCs demanded this yet?
October 10th, 2005 at 11:25 am
Great idea for a post Paul (and if you are THE Paul Ruebens then you know your porn titles). I’m elevating this up to “update” status.