blockbuster

Over the past few years, Kickstarter has become a force to be reckoned with. Some of the coolest and weirdest gadgets I saw at this year's CES didn't come from big corporations or even small ones -- they came from independent inventors who found funding and encouragement through Kickstarter.

Which isn't to say that every Kickstarter project is a hit. The site is also a graveyard of hackneyed ideas, indie records, and films that no one wants to see. But when a Kickstarter campaign hits the right nerve, it's an exhilarating flip of the supply-and-demand model … Read more

As more Blockbuster video rental stores slip into the red, its parent company Dish Network has decided to shutter 300 stores across the U.S., according to Reuters. The closing of these stores could mean that as many as 3,000 employees would also be laid off.

After Dish bought Blockbuster in 2011, for $320 million, the company said it planned to keep 1,500 of the chain's rental stores open and maintain 15,000 employees. However, with profits dropping, and with video streaming and downloading popping up all over the place, Dish ended up keeping only about 850 locations open. … Read more

When DVD rentals don't work, maybe sell... mobile phones? Rumor has it that Blockbuster is getting into the phone hawking business at its retail stores, according to Bloomberg.

What seems like a random choice might actually be a conscientious maneuver by Dish Network, which bought the struggling movie rental chain last year. Dish is primarily a provider of satellite-TV service, but over the past year it's been making moves to get into the wireless business.

Recently, Dish launched Blockbuster Mobile and started selling smartphones online. Blockbuster Mobile works with Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon and offers devices including Samsung'… Read more

What should CEO Reed Hastings do if billionaire investor Carl Icahn wins some control of Netflix? Stay cool and don't sweat it, says one of Hastings' former rivals -- John Antioco, former CEO of the former Blockbuster.

Icahn acquired nearly 10 percent of Netflix's shares last week. His entry into any company typically means headaches for managers and directors. Antioco knows a thing or two about dealing with Icahn.

Antioco led turnarounds at Circle K convenience stores and Taco Bell, and was on his way to building Blockbuster's digital unit into a significant Netflix competitor when Icahn'… Read more

Netflix management faces perhaps the biggest threat to its existence in the form of Carl Icahn, the famed corporate raider.

Icahn acquired a little under 10 percent of Netflix's shares last week and made noise about how sees a way to profit from the potential sale of the Web's top video rental service -- a company that has struggled mightily in the past 15 months with a customer-alienating price increase and missed projections.

In a financial career that has spanned more than 30 years, Icahn has developed a reputation for being someone who can unlock value at troubled … Read more

Jeff Bezos might have saved his company some money -- and a lot of trouble -- had he not tried to lowball Netflix back in 1999.

According to "Netflixed," a history of the DVD-and-streaming pioneer that's due to go on sale Thursday, founders Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph met with the Amazon CEO in 1999, after he indicated he might want to partner with Netflix in some way.

"Hastings also wanted to discuss selling Netflix to Amazon if the price was right," writes Gina Keating, the former Reuters reporter who authored the book. The only … Read more

So much for the rebirth of Blockbuster as a Netflix competitor.

Bloomberg reports that billionaire Charlie Ergen, founder and chairman of the Dish Network, has abandoned his effort to revive the onetime video-rental powerhouse. The original plan was to take Blockbuster retail locations and use them to sell Dish mobile devices, which could in turn be used to stream movies.

But U.S. regulators wouldn't grant immediate approval to a waiver that would allow Dish to transmit data and voice over its satellite spectrum, and Ergen decided to give up on the effort.

It's unclear what Dish will … Read more

By now, most techies know the celebrated story of how Netflix vanquished Blockbuster to kill off the late fee, usher in streaming distribution, and lay waste to traditional video rentals.

But "Netflixed," a book coming out next week, aims to set the record straight about how the company seized supreme power in online video rentals and who was responsible for that success, as well as offer clues to where the company may be headed.

Gina Keating, the book's author and a former reporter for Reuters, spent two years researching the project, which offers an insider's view … Read more

Make it a Blockbuster night.

Remember that? It wasn't that long ago that Blockbuster was king of home video and the company's name was synonymous with weekend entertainment for millions of Americans. But the original Blockbuster business is dead now. Netflix and Coinstar (Redbox) rule supreme and Hollywood's home entertainment business is in the toilet.

Against that dismal backdrop, the studios are excited about a 1 percent uptick for the first half of the year in U.S. home-video sales, according to the Digital Entertainment Group. DEG said total revenue came in at $8.4 billion, while … Read more