blockbuster

Blockbuster might soon have a new owner.

The rental company announced yesterday that it will be holding a special auction to sell off its operation to the highest bidder. The company decided to hold an auction after a "stalking horse" bidder, Cobalt Video Holdco, came along and offered management $290 million for its U.S. and international subsidies, Blockbuster said. That $290 million fee, which Blockbuster agreed to in an asset-purchase arrangement, will be used as the minimum amount that management will accept from any bidder.

However, there are several factors at play before Blockbuster can hold an … Read more

After a couple of months of getting pummeled in the press by doubters at the studios and Time Warner, Netflix will have a chance today to silence its critics.

Netflix is scheduled to report the video service's fourth-quarter earnings after the close of trading. It's a safe bet that many in Hollywood will be watching to see whether Netflix's popularity with consumers has continued to soar.

In October, the company said it expected to add 2.7 million subscribers for the quarter that ended December 31, an unprecedented number for the video-rental service. Netflix predicted it would … Read more

NPD Group says that for the first time, movie rentals from standalone kiosk have a larger market share in the United States than those from brick-and-mortar stores.

"Netflix and other subscription services comprised 41 percent of video rental turns in the third quarter of 2010," NPD wrote, "followed by kiosk rentals at 31 percent, and in-store rentals at 27 percent."

NPD, a research firm, said today that its study found the share of kiosk rentals grew 10 percent from the same quarter in 2009. The data only accounts for disc rentals and does not include movies … Read more

Don't expect to find new Warner Bros. movies in Blockbuster Express kiosks the same day the DVDs hit store shelves.

NCR, the company that owns and operates Blockbuster Express kiosks (it licenses the name from Blockbuster), announced yesterday that it will get Warner Home Video films 28 days after they're released.

NCR said the deal will help it reduce acquisition costs on films because it previously paid full price at retail to get new Warner Home Video movies into its kiosks. However, when it did so, the company sometimes had the films available in its kiosks on launch … Read more

Netflix's toppling of the traditional video-rental market and especially the Blockbuster chain will likely be studied by business students for years to come.

So, here's another fun fact to look at: Blockbuster CEO John Antioco was approached in 2000 by Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings about forming a partnership, recalled Barry McCarthy in an interview he gave to the Unofficial Stanford blog two years ago. I turned up McCarthy's interview while researching a story about why he's leaving Netflix after 11 years as chief financial officer.

"I remembered getting on a plane, I think … Read more

In 2004, Barry McCarthy, Netflix's outgoing chief financial officer, wanted to try something new and planned to resign, according to people close to him. He balked when he saw that the Web video service faced a series of threats, including an attempt by much larger rival Blockbuster to deliver DVDs to people's homes.

The sources said that at the time, McCarthy joked that his reason for staying was that you don't walk away from friends in a knife fight.

On Tuesday, Netflix announced that McCarthy, 57, would step down this week, ending an 11-year run in which … Read more

What would have happened had the studios held on to the Netflix stock they once owned?

The Wrap, a blog that covers Hollywood, reminded us in a story today that in the 1990s Warner Bros. was looking for leverage in negotiations with video rental chain Blockbuster. The studio took small ownership stakes in Netflix prior to the company's initial public offering in 2002.

The other major studios followed but all of them unloaded their shares a year after the IPO.

They weren't the only ones who were wrong about Netflix. Jim Cramer, the high-volume host of the cable … Read more

The convergence of TVs and computers has been promised for decades, but remains largely unknown for most people outside of the tech world. Fortunately, Google aims to change all that with its Internet-connected Google TV Platform.

Google TV promises to let viewers watch video from a variety of sources--so far YouTube, Vevo, HBO, TBS and even our own CNET TV will have apps available. The big broadcast networks like ABC, CBS and NBC are taking a wait-and-see approach. But Google TV promises you even more, with the ability to search and browse the Web, record your favorite TV programs, and even control the whole experience from your cell phone.

Logitech is holding a news conference today for its own Google TV product, the Logitech Revue, and CNET is at there covering all the news as it happens. Check back again next week when Sony launches its own Google-TV powered box on October 12.

Next up on today's show we're calling BS on an image of a public Twitter booth that recently popped up on Russian Livejournal, aka the premiere site for tech news coverage.

America has its own share of Internet kiosks, but we have a hard time imagining the kind of tweet that would require you to drop everything and pay money to send it out...from a park. We could be wrong, though, so send us a photo if you spot a Twitter kiosk in the wild.

This is the second-to-the-last reminder you're going to get about our official Fall 404 Meetup tomorrow, October 7 at the Frying Pan Bar in New York City.

Join us tomorrow from 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m., and an early thanks to the Pan for hooking it up with $15 wristbands good for open beer, well drinks, and wine for the duration of the Meetup!

We'd like to give them an idea of who's coming, so head over to The 404 Meetup page and RSVP for the event (Meetup.com registration required). We'll see you there!

On today's show, we bid an only slightly passive-aggressive farewell to Jason Howell on his last day here at CNET. Jerk. Love you, babe! Also, we're beret without the Bookface, Netflix apologizes for rightly calling Americans self-absorbed, and did you really think the Apple TV was going to ship on time? --Molly