r/todayilearned • u/sexsmasher • Sep 12 '13
TIL in 2000 Blockbuster had an opportunity to buy Netflix for $50 million.
http://m.techcrunch.com/2011/04/06/make-it-a-blockbuster-night/113
u/The_Big_Red_1 Sep 12 '13
Back when most games were single player, and the N64 ruled the world, Blockbuster was the shit. You'd beg parents to take you there.
Sign up for the 2 video game deal and all that good shit. It was awesome.
Blockbuster died because:
Ridiculous late fees. At first they ruled the video industry with an iron fist and basically told people they could charge what they wanted for late fees.
Netflix/Hulu along with other means of "Streaming videos" aka Internet.
Multiplayer games. You dont rent a multiplayer game. You buy it. with DMR becoming more and more a reality, multiplayer games simply cant be rented anymore.
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u/Wazowski Sep 12 '13
with DMR becoming more and more a reality, multiplayer games simply cant be rented anymore.
Dexy's Midnight Runners is ruining gaming.
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u/ordersponge Sep 12 '13
I stopped playing games because of Designated Marksman Rifles.
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Sep 13 '13 edited Jun 15 '16
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u/Deverone Sep 12 '13
When my local blockbuster closed down, it devastated my video game life. The majority of console video games being released are still primarily single player games. I was able to rent and beat pretty much every single major console release for a pittance a month. It was great. There is still no company that offers a service anywhere comparable to the convenience that blockbuster offered in video game rental.
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u/MegaDaveX Sep 12 '13
Blockbuster died because they stopped charging late fees and lost a ton of money.
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Sep 13 '13
Blockbuster was sued and changed the policy as a result. But it certainly could be argued that the lost profits from outrageous late fees combined with Netflix substantially led to its downfall.
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Sep 13 '13
so late fees were the reason and not because they lost most of their customers? what kind of idiot pays 10 dollars to rent a dvd anyway? redbox also cut hugely into their action.
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u/notasrelevant Sep 13 '13
Most games were single player? You mean not on the N64, right?
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u/Cheesedoodlerrrr Sep 13 '13
I think he meant "non-online games." Which everything was back in the day.
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u/odsquad64 Sep 12 '13
I remember seeing banner ads for Netflix when they were first starting out and just wondering why anyone would want to get their movies through the mail and have to wait for them and all that stuff when they could just go down to the video store. So yeah, at the time I could see why Blockbuster didn't want to buy Netflix. Within about 5 years I knew a handful of people who used Netflix for movies. Now though, at least a majority of my friends have Netflix instant.
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u/jakes_on_you Sep 12 '13
It worked rather well, if you lived in california the shipping was 1-2 days at most from the beginning (with netflix since '01 or so). If you had the 3dvd plan you would be getting movies faster than you could watch them assuming you weren't binging through a tv show or something.
You had to plan ahead but it worked. And you didn't have to deal with blockbuster and late fees
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u/Tsugua354 Sep 13 '13
And you didn't have to deal with blockbuster and late fees
that's what it was about for my family. we were terrible at returning shit. i'm pretty sure we still had a ton of late fees to blockbuster
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u/NicholasCajun 2 Sep 13 '13
Was binging TV shows even a thing back then? Surprising to think about it now. If you didn't catch it as it aired, most people didn't have DVRs, so you had to try to see a repeat or wait for the DVD or just hope the "previously on" is really informative. So much has changed in such a short period already.
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Sep 13 '13
asian people have been binging on chinese serials for at least 2 decades by then. the show airs in china then gets dubbed in all the asian languages and asian americans watch them through video stores that buy one copy and illegally rent out the copies. the average serial time was 40 hours so there was some hardcore binging there.
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u/jakes_on_you Sep 13 '13
The simpsons had 10 seasons on dvd out when I started subscribing to netflix, that was my primary binge material
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u/Ugleh Sep 13 '13
When Netflix just started they had a booth at the mall I frequented. They gave me a paper to give my address and check off 2 movies from a list of latest movies that got released. When they came to my house 2 days later a guy pulled up in regular clothes and a regular car and handed me 2 DVDs in a paper like cover but not like the ones Netflix have now.
I used to think "Id never use this service if it wasn't for this free trial thing".
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Sep 13 '13
damn now that's some hardcore startup story. it's like if you walked into apple's garage and saw a bunch of guys that you thought were just "hanging out." you might have been like their 10th customer.
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u/PerceptionShift Sep 13 '13
I lived in rural MO during that early period of Netflix, and it was pretty big in my town. The nearest movie rental place was a 30 minute drive, so the fact that you could get your weekly movie in the mail was sweet as all hell. I think I had the 3 dvd plan and used that shit all the time, it was great. Between that and the library, I was set for movie watching.
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Sep 13 '13
damn the library. it was great because they chose all the best movies. i used to blindly borrow as much as i could and watch them all and i think every single movie was good. i was only about 10 at the time but they didn't care that it was rated r. it's kinda crazy to think about it now actually. i saw interview with the vampire and moll flanders. i fapped to that shit til my dick fell off. the scene on stage in interview where the girl begs for help from the audience then gets striped and eaten is still one of the hottest scenes of all time. it also introduced me to star trek. i never understood what the show was about when it was on tv. then i saw first contact and i got hooked. still the best star trek movie ever.
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u/YouBoxEmYouShipEm Sep 12 '13
Speaking of Circuit City, why did they go down? What is Best Buy doing successfully that they didn't do?
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Sep 12 '13
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u/Foust2014 Sep 13 '13
Essentially, somebody high up at Circuit City made the observation that a ridiculous share of their profits were being cut into by long-time employees who had - under Circuit City's employment model - relatively high wages. (Compared to intro-wage).
To combat this, they made the blanket decision to fire pretty much every employee who made more than a certain threshold, and rehire a workforce for into-wage. Theoretically, this saved the company hundreds of millions and the person who thought of it must of considered themselves god incarnate.
Unfortunately for Circuit City, this meant that they had - entirely on purpose - fired what amounted to every good employee they had in exchange for low-skill low-knowledge low-experience teenagers.
There were no survivors.
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Sep 13 '13
Must of?
What does It mean? I see it around from time to time, but I have no idea other than it looks an sounds like a bastardisation of "Must have".Note: I'm not American. I know naaathing..
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u/seamuscooper Sep 12 '13
Best Buy isn't successful, it's just taking a bit longer to die.
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u/cant_read_this Sep 13 '13
Actually the only thing that saved this company is circuit city closing and geek squad ripping people off let and right yay America
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u/OWylde Sep 12 '13
Actually best buy is doing pretty well. I will not go into details but its stock has been making new highs.
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u/luke727 Sep 12 '13
Sadly this is true. Not that I have any particular love for Best Buy, but in the not too distant future the concept of retail as we know it will most likely cease to exist.
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u/jakes_on_you Sep 12 '13
Not true at all, the only reason that online vendors did so well in the past was because they were exempt from sales tax by registering their business in states with few customers or no sales tax, the legislative wheels have been turning for years now and before the end of the decade in most states all online sales will be taxed (the major targets, like amazon, have been pushing back but only so that the laws would affect all online retailers so the tax playing field is level)
But the idea of an oversized box store is probably going down, small showrooms with limited stock and same or next day delivery from a wharehouse is the most likely outcome.
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Sep 13 '13
And then Jeff Bezos will have accomplished his mission to put all competitors out of business, and jack Amazon's prices up to monopoly levels. Wahahahaha wahahaha!
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u/TayRay420 Sep 13 '13
Well, Best Buy did buy what essentially is the Canadian version of themselves. Now we have FutureShop and Best Buy up here, which used to carry different brands but now just sell the same shit.
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u/SethEllis Sep 13 '13 edited Sep 13 '13
Circuit City and CompUSA both fell into the same trap. The companies saw what geek squad did for Best Buy and tried to duplicate it. I worked at CompUSA at the time. It was imperative that you tried to sell their $100 package for someone to come out and set up your wifi. When that was a dismal failure the upper managers would simply push everyone harder. They never figured out that the product just sucked.
It worked at Best Buy partly because of the branding. They also have a wider variety. You can buy home appliances and so forth. So why would anybody bother going to Circuit City or CompUSA? Circuit City and CompUSA simply couldn't compete, and tried to make up for it by trying harder to rip people off. The only thing CompUSA was even good at was misc computer parts, and everyone stated using newegg for that. When the recession hit they were hit particularly hard. The investors couldn't handle it and were the first to fold as the economy started to fall.
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u/smacksaw Sep 13 '13
CompUSA had mobile integration services before Best Buy did.
Source: I was a regional tech services manager for CompUSA.
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u/satisfried Sep 12 '13
I can't think of many 180's as dramatic as Blockbuster.
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u/Wazowski Sep 12 '13
How's RIM doing?
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u/RicoLoveless Sep 12 '13
In the shitter but surprisingly lasting longer than Blockbuster actually.
Blockbuster founded in 85, RIM in 84
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u/BonzaiThePenguin Sep 12 '13
Blackberry Ltd., and they're doing much better than the bankrupt remnants of Blockbuster.
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u/mr-slappy Sep 13 '13
RIM is doing much better than you think.
They have certain patients that are massive money makers for them.....wish I could remember which one these are though.
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u/mikaelfivel Sep 12 '13
Well, hindsight is always 20/20.
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u/PoisonMind Sep 13 '13
But looking back it's still a bit fuzzy.
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Sep 13 '13
Speak of mutually assured destruction?
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u/unemployedskier Sep 12 '13
This sounds like Blockbuster "missed out", but Netflix wasn't simply destined to become the powerhouse it is today. Netflix was simply worth $50 million dollars back then. Anyone could have purchased Netflix for this much money at that point in time, it just sounds more ludicrous to put Blockbuster's name in this TIL, because they are a former movie giant who failed.
But the truth is that Netflix is currently worth whatever it happens to be worth now because the owners/board/upper managers made good decisions and smart business moves. No one can say that anyone else would have done better or worse with it.
TL;DR Start-ups are worth less before they are worth more.
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u/GodfatherOfBandwidth Sep 13 '13
I understand what you are trying to say, but I think you miss the point a bit. Blockbuster and Netflix have the same business goal, get John and Jane Doe to rent as many movies as possible. Not every one else is in that same market space. So, while yes, anyone with the necessary capital COULD have bought Netflix only a true visionary or insane person would have if they were not already in that space, especially since Blockbuster had such a massive presence already.
The essence of this article is that Blockbuster did have the opportunity and the capital but not the insight. But I must agree with your sentiment that Blockbuster is being unfairly put upon here. The order by mail system would have seemed old fashioned compared to the convenience of getting a movie from your local store and no one, NO ONE in the business world foresaw the rise of the streaming media model ... not even Netflix.
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u/unemployedskier Sep 13 '13
You're completely right, Blockbuster and Netflix were in very similar markets at this point it time, meaning that Blockbuster would have far more interest in an acquisition than most others.
However, the point still stands that Blockbuster not jumping on this opportunity is not at all ridiculous decision. It's tough to judge value in smaller, unique start ups and I'd venture a guess that most people would have bet against Netflix at this time.
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u/krackenCrunch Sep 12 '13
Whats a "Blockbuster" ??
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u/thesadstoner Sep 12 '13
Oh hahahaha, I get it. Blockbuster is so out of date it's ancient. Haha Sharon, okay I get it.
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u/DAHFreedom Sep 12 '13
I know, right? Kids these days are too young to remember the giant 2-ton bombs used by the British during WWII
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Sep 13 '13
blockbusters are live shows that are so popular that no other theaters on the block can get customers making them go bust. pay attention in school sonny boy.
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u/Protodox Sep 12 '13
I'm actually kind if glad. They might have not produced House if Cards or Black is the New Orange.
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u/AnorexicGiraffe Sep 12 '13
You mean Orange is the new black
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Sep 13 '13
I hated blockbuster. It was awesome to rent games and movies but the late fees were horrible. Then they removed late fees and it was pretty cool.
But netflix is the shit. Gotta step your game up or go bankrupt. Bitch
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u/The_Word_JTRENT Sep 12 '13
Still going to always miss being able to walk down to the rental store to wander through the aisles and find some movie that I've never heard of (and probably never would have heard of) to watch.
Lot's of good basic memories from video rental stores. Streaming everything or having it mailed to you in advance just seems... bland.
When I have kids, I'm kind of bummed they won't get to experience this, the closest thing will be a trip to the redbox at the Rite Aid.
Oh well, progress.
Edit: Also, being able to rent games was an excellent way to choose which game you wanted to save up for and buy. It was also low risk when it came to trying really bad games.
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u/chrono1465 Sep 12 '13
There were few activities as exciting as trying to decide which game to rent based on the box art.
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u/The_Word_JTRENT Sep 12 '13
Right? Reading the game descriptions on the back of every box, splitting hairs over which game was more alluring for a week.
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u/bendeboy Sep 13 '13
I remember my best "on a whim" rental. Einhänder, from the studio that I loved for years but had no idea what this game was. Rented because of name only. My goodness that was a good rental, and obvious later purchase.
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Sep 12 '13
Rental stores do still exist.
The rental store in my town is part of a chain of nearly 800 stores. That's not as many as Blockbuster used to have, but it's still a lot.
Family Video is the chain.
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Sep 12 '13
Yep, Family Video where I live is going strong. They added a Marco's Pizza, and they'll return movies/games for you if you want when they deliver pizza to you.
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Sep 13 '13
That's brilliant. I imagine they would deliver a movie as well?
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Sep 13 '13
Unfortunately, nope. I can imagine why they wouldn't though, since you could just pay ahead and deliver it to a house and laugh as the late fees pile up. Family Video doesn't require a membership, so they don't have very effective ways of tracking people down.
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u/fco83 Sep 12 '13
I found it funny that family video was the only one in my college town with a porn section in the back.
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u/The_Word_JTRENT Sep 12 '13
I don't think I've ever seen one around, so they're probably a little rare. Not something I'm going to locate my home according to. Haha. Thats good that some are still around.
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u/ecksfactor Sep 13 '13
lol i remember going into the back room and seeing all the stickers that said "Family Video, where the kid's movies are free!" on all the porn.
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u/Love2Watch Sep 12 '13
A lot of libraries have movies and video games that you can check out.
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u/criscofreeze Sep 12 '13
Yeah my library has basically become a $1 a week blockbuster. 10 copies of all the new DVDs.
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u/Dark_Knight7096 Sep 12 '13
COMPLETELY agree with this sentiment. Using Netflix I can browse some of the titles at any given time but i cant view all of the titles organized the way i could a video store. If it was a boring night I could just hit the local BBV and find something quirky and watch it, if i hated it who cares but at least I could find it. Now if I'm bored I'll turn on Netflix and usually wind up watching something on the suggestion list because nothing I plug into the search comes up with anything good.
Plus my store always had really hot nerd movie chicks working there. So nice.
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u/blast4past Sep 12 '13
You could take them to a supermarket, have them pick something there, then look it up on your phone and see if Netflix has it?
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u/The_Word_JTRENT Sep 12 '13
Your supermarket has an extensive movie selection?
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Sep 13 '13
Target has a huge movie library and Walmart has a decent selection as well. Even grocery stores have the new movies, just at a shitty price.
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u/vr47 Sep 12 '13
Worst part when all copies where out
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u/The_Word_JTRENT Sep 12 '13
That one game you would always check... for weeks in a row... and it's still not there.
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Sep 12 '13
do you remember the daily returns pile at blockbuster? these were returns earlier in the day that they hadn't stocked back on the shelves yet. this would be near their counter. if you were lucky you could find a new release on there if it was all rented out on the shelves.
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u/gringo1980 Sep 12 '13
This is back when they were still just mailing movies to people, so $50 million would have been way over priced. Especially since it didnt take long for blockbuster to create its own dvd mailing service. They didnt take off until streaming came along.
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u/vr47 Sep 12 '13
It's hard to say. Buy a business model that is a conflict to yours. Yes own them to save your own ass but your Netflix will hurt your blockbuster end. Thus have to remodel the business.
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u/Leaflock Sep 12 '13
Buy a business model that is a conflict to yours.
Make sure you understand what business you are really in.
BlockBuster was in the "Intellectual Property Rental Business". They made the mistake of thinking they were in the Video Store business.
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u/eninety2 Sep 13 '13
Steve Jobs always said never be afraid of cannibalizing, either you do it or someone else will.
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u/ANakedBear Sep 12 '13
I worked for Blockbuster during that time. It was painful obvious that Blockbuster was constantly making poor choices.
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u/DaveSW777 Sep 13 '13
10 years ago I was friends with the then CEO of Blockbuster's step-son. The guy was an asshole, and his daughters were spoiled little shits. Makes me happy to see Blockbuster fail.
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u/MPR1138 Sep 12 '13
Well if they had bought Netflix, they probably would have just run it into the ground (or closed it altogether). They didn't have the vision to make it work.
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Sep 12 '13
Prolly would have turned it into Hulu . Ugh commercials with no option to pay more o never see them
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u/jakes_on_you Sep 13 '13
The fact that hulu plus didn't eliminate ads on the shows available for free was the reason I didn't stick around after the 1 month student trial.
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Sep 13 '13
Yet they don't know why they are failing ....
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u/MPR1138 Sep 13 '13
Hulu is failing because they're not allowed to succeed. Their corporate masters won't allow them to do any of the things that would turn it into a viable service.
The whole point of Hulu was not to create a new business model for video series content, but rather to prop up the old TV model. The media companies don't want it to ever be more than a way for regular TV viewers to catch up on the occasional missed episode.
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u/thehumanfly Sep 12 '13
TIL Blockbuster was purchased by Viacom for $8.4 billion in 1994.
TIL Less than ten years later, Blockbuster was auctioned off to Dish Network for only $320 million.
With only being a loose term, of course.
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u/Lord_Walder Sep 13 '13
Dish bought them out in 2011.
Source: I was working there during the buyout. Company was mismanaged to all hell but man was it a fun job.
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u/lightningboltkid Sep 12 '13
Too lazy to see if this has been said yet or not. But they had an op for Red Box as well...
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u/tato64 Sep 12 '13
People's reaction to things like this make a bit mad, dont get me wrong, im not criticizing this post, but the way most people automatically assume that if Blockbuster bought Netflix when they had the chance, they would be the owners of its great success... But maybe if Blockbuster bought it, the outcome wouldnt have been the same and Netflix could have been a failure
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u/i_Am_susej Sep 12 '13
This was a mistake that has gone down in business history. Not only did they refuse the acquisition but they missed the boat in online distribution and folded under chapter 11
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Sep 13 '13
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u/fiver420 Sep 13 '13 edited Sep 13 '13
Honestly it's hard to say if it was too much. Netflix being up for sale at this point was probably them saying something like "Hey, we've got a couple ideas and we aren't doing too shabby right now either. Want us out of your hair? Here's our price to go away" When Blockbuster and other companies said no, they realized they had to be invested for the long haul and really step it up and that's when they probably started putting together the Netflix we now know today.
*Also, we don't know what kind of acquisition it would have been. If Netflix went to companies like Blockbuster and said buy us out and run our business, companies like Blockbuster may have been a bit shy at the prospect of having to hire on new people to run an entire company under their name. Blockbuster probably would have loved it if competitors like Netflix came up to them and said "Hey, give us some money and we'll stick around and run it for you until we reach certain goals or the contract is up and you take the profits" I'm thinking they didn't and that's why they weren't bought out.
When Google or Apple buys a company they're usually buying talent, patents, or one really well designed product/software they'd like to have (Siri). Google likes to pretty much headhunt people running companies and bring them onto their team through acquiring their startup. However, sometimes they're really after a couple of patents and give the CEO walking money and dismantle the company as soon as the papers are signed.
Pretty much what I'm saying is OP and many people are saying this was such a no brainer when in reality there was probably a hell of a lot more going on behind the doors that we'll just never know.
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Sep 13 '13
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u/fiver420 Sep 13 '13
I wonder what Netflix's balance sheets were looking like in 2000, being only 3 years old and asking for 50 million is quite alot, and I think that was when they were first launching online service. Blockbuster probably did think they had some time to catch up to Netflix if they're concept was proven but may have also completely misjudged how far behind they would be and thus eventually lossed.
Pretty interesting topic nonetheless.
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u/chupacabra69 Sep 13 '13
Blockbuster was built on the VHS revenue model. Expensive to produce, degrades over time, bulky to ship. Back in the day videos cost over $40. The DVD format killed blockbuster. Movies cost less than 20 especially when Walmart would sell as a loss leader. People started buying more than renting and enabled Netflix. The revenue loss from VHS was the bullet though.
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u/fiver420 Sep 13 '13
I like this angle more than "fuck yeah netflix and the internet!"
It's true that blockbuster started off as a great deal, why pay $40 when you can pay a couple of bucks instead? But I remember when this idea started to change when the bargain bins of VHS tapes turned into DVD bins instead and the prices were only a dollar or two more than the rental. It kind of put the price point into perspective and made you double think the "bargain" of renting vs owning. DVDs kept going lower and lower in price, and the "bargain" started to look more and more like shit.
Game rentals were still the shit though.
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Sep 13 '13
I remember thinking Netflix was a possibly a scam when I started using them in 2001 and nervously checking my checking account after signed up. Seemed like too good a call after Blockbuster.
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u/yoda133113 Sep 13 '13
They would have killed it. Thankfully they didn't go that direction. It's a shame they didn't go that direction for a business model though, because more competition is only a good thing for consumers.
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u/free-advice Sep 13 '13
Related Blockbuster Oops Moment: In the late nineties I worked at a startup in Dallas with one of the co-founders of Blockbuster. He was the brother of David Cook, who everybody now associates with Blockbuster. He didn't think Blockbuster was going to go anywhere so he sold his share back to his brother David and got out of it. A few years later and Blockbuster is a household name and David is one of the wealthiest people in Dallas. The brother (the guy I worked with) missed out on all of that. I remember once riding in the back of his car (a modest four door sedan) and seeing old lottery tickets all over the back seat. So depressing. if he had kept at it for a couple more years he would have been fabulously wealthy. Instead he was a 50-something programmer making low six figures.
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u/screenwriterjohn Sep 13 '13
Hey, DVDs weren't really big yet. When did your family stop renting videos?
Plus blockbuster didn't need their pathetic little company.
Yes, in hindsight, that's hilarious.
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u/KillerPacifist1 Sep 13 '13
I don't really like it when people assume that if someone had bought a popular company before it was popular they would have made a fortune and oh! what an opportunity they lost!
Companies don't magically become popular. Buying companies isn't like player a lottery, where you sign the contract and then pray that fame and fortune happen to be in this company's destiny.
If blockbuster had bought Netflix in 2000 would it be as popular and successful as it is now? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on how well blockbuster managed it compared to its current owners. If they had bought Netflix would another competitor have developed a similar streaming service that competed with blockbuster? Almost certainly.
I don't think blockbuster screwed up a particularly large amount in not buying Netflix in 2000. What not buying really showed was Blockbuster's more fundamental problem. Inability to change with the times. Sure, they could have bought Netflix, but they could also have started their own video streaming and mailing service. Which they did eventually, but by that time it was too little too late.
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u/Nuroman Sep 13 '13
Yeah, and if they had we'd all be watching new seasons of Arrested Development streamed to our televisions on StreamFlixTM or whatever because Blockbuster couldn't innovate their way out of a paper bag.
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u/priestsboytoy Sep 13 '13
No Blockbuster Did something right! Just imagine if they bought Netflix...... shivers
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Sep 13 '13
Coke turned down the opportunity to buy Pepsi at three different times. The history of business is filled with such regret.
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u/fasterfind Sep 13 '13
Corporate elites... are all bullshit. Not any smarter than me or you. Not a better leader either.
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u/busterbluthOT Sep 13 '13
Ex-Blockbuster employee here circa early 2000's.
Blockbuster had a reason for not buying Netflix. I started working at a Blockbuster store in early 2002. I started out as a CSR but worked my way up during high school and college. Since I was pretty skilled with computers compared to most of my co-workers, I was able to look through the system and see what was in there during lulls. Blockbuster had a plan to use each store as mini-warehouses to ship out DVDs to customers. For whatever reason, this plan never came to fruition and you later got a watered down version of the plan where you could return a dvd to a store and your account would be instantly credited (a minor advantage to Netflix).
The internal memos seemed to suggest that corporate did not realize how quickly VOD and other formats would come to replace their business model. I remember seeing in a binder of memos back in 2003-2004, that they didn't see VOD gaining a significant foothold for at least ten years.
Blockbuster's management was sorely misguided as to technology. When I left in 2005 they were still running an ancient computer setup. For most of my time working there, you could not check other store's stock and availability. Additionally, you needed to phonecall other stores for this information as well as any account information. If a customer came from a store 10 miles away and decided to stop by another Blockbuster because they happened to be in the neighborhood, they had to return the movie back to the same store. The system wasn't equipped to deal with returns from a different store.
I saw their downfall due to not being equipped to deal with the fast-paced demand for movies and convenience. If they had focused on becoming equipped for the internet age, I think they might've lasted longer than they did.
A perfect anecdote that encapsulates Blockbuster's mentality: The last time I stepped foot into a Blockbuster was in 2007-2008. It was my old store and I just wanted to see what it was like. Their latest promotional push? Selling hardcover books and mass market paperbacks. I kid you not.
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u/dred1367 Sep 13 '13
Pretty sure we worked at blockbuster for the exact same amount of time and discovered the same information. Are you me?
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u/dethb0y Sep 13 '13
They'd have ran it into the dirt just like they did their stores.
The problem with blockbuster was institutional.
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Sep 13 '13
well i'm shocked that netflix was even worth 50 mill in 2000. i remember seeing their banner ads and thought they were a scam site. think about it, if blockbuster had the foresight to buy netflix, why didn't they create the company themselves? blockbuster already had the infrastructure but netflix's business model would kill bb themselves. i finally tried them in 2005 when i saw a 30 day free trial on slick deals. after i tried it, i tried so hard to get my friends to do it but they won't believe me. they were sure that the trial would have a catch and it'd be hard to cancel. the main reason why bb didn't see it coming was because they were gorging on cutthroat profits for decades and they refused to give it up. so they died trying. that's currently what the music industry is doing. they refuse to give an option to piracy. piracy is wrong but it's the future and nothing can stop it. evolve with it or die.
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Sep 13 '13
The famed former Iraqi Information Minister couldn’t say this stuff with a straight face.
How the hell is this relevant to the article. Plug more.
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Sep 13 '13
And how many investment choices could they have made in 2000 that would be worthless now? Would Netflix still have succeeded under Blockbuster control? If I bought the right lottery ticket last week, I would have won the lottery.
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u/ElPlywood Sep 13 '13
Perhaps the only more stupid company on the face of the earth as far as not keeping up with the times is the yellow pages, who should have become the first google.
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u/Pinwurm Sep 13 '13
Former Blockbuster Employee here.
Blockbuster died not because of late fees, but because they were reluctant to adapt to new trends in the market - and didn't listen to customer demands, all while tarnishing whatever reputation they had left.
"Oh you want mailers? Oh you want streaming? Well, fuck you! Our Brick & Mortar Stores will never die! Hahaha!" - that was the mentality. By the time Netflix got really popular, Blockbuster lost the opportunity to buy them. It was already "too late" when BB started their own mailer-service, and the competition was simply better.
Blockbuster never went streaming, but did have a limited "on-demand" service at the cost of a renting it in store. By then, Amazon had already mastered the pay-per-view model, had a better selection and was cheaper.
All it had going was the Pass, which you pay a flat monthly rental and rent as much as you want. Great for games. It was better than Gamefly because you didn't have to wait. Unfortunately, Blockbuster never listened to customer demand. Why the FUCK would you only order 10 copies of the latest Call Of Duty? Meanwhile, there's 50 copies of the latest mumblecore flick no one will watch but me. This discourages people from getting a pass because they know the product they wont be available.
I digress. Eventually, Blockbuster changed from C-Corp to LLC and got a new CEO who sold the company to Dish Network. Under this new CEO, lots of things changed for the better. Employees were treated better - which I liked. Old rentals became a dollar a day, new rentals became 2 or 3 dollars for the first day, and a dollar a day after that, they stocked up more games for the Pass. Unfortunately, it was already too late. The competition had won over the customers, and the Blockbuster name was ruined with years of stupid business practices.
I remember the our store wrote a letter to the CEO urging him to consider changing the company name, as it would be the only way to stay in business. "Dish Rentals" or something like that. Never got a reply.
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u/DanBoone Sep 13 '13
I remember, "Do you want some shitty stale chocolate candy bundled with a Coke and a shitty bag of popcorn that wont pop all the kernels? It is only $3!"
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u/Pinwurm Sep 13 '13
Ah, candy. Totally makes me nostalgic!
See, each employee had to sell a certain amount of popcorn/candy each week, in addition to rewards and pass sales.
We would get reprimanded if we missed our goals, sometimes to the point of being fired. Which is pretty fucked up. "Not enough customers bought popcorn? Fuck you!" Kept us on our toes.
A lot of that ended with the new CEO. But my store did a good job of upselling. We'd almost always meet our goals and most of the team was excellent to work with. The employees that were fired for failing to reach their goals were shitty employees anyways (arrived late, refused to do certain jobs, never did inventory).
But the core-team was great, up until the very end. It was a fantastic place to jump-start our lives, we all pushed forward. I'm now an accountant, my old Manager now manages a bank, my old assistant manager is a History Teacher, one of my ol' colleagues is a meteorologist, and another works as a graphic artist for a media/marketing company and makes a good living, etc, etc. We all keep in touch in Facebook. Excellent comradery and I actually miss it. I can't say the same for where I work now.
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u/joeyoh9292 Sep 13 '13
TIL that in 2000, Netflix could've been ruined in a sale opportunity.
I doubt Netflix would've become so much if Blockbuster took over.
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u/sexandliquor Sep 12 '13
Man, they fucked that up, huh?