Blockbuster stock to be delisted from NYSE
After a tumultuous decade of trying to compete with Netflix, the company says its Class A and Class B stock will be delisted from the stock exchange next week.
Blockbuster's stock will no longer be available on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) starting next week, the company announced in a statement Thursday.
The issue, according to Blockbuster, started in November, when the NYSE contacted the company and informed it that because its shares had an average price of less than $1 over a consecutive 30-day period, it was in danger of being delisted from the market, if it couldn't find a remedy at its annual meeting in May. Since then, the company's stock price has stayed below $1 per share.
In an attempt to save its stock, Blockbuster executives decided that the only way to keep the company from being delisted was to convert Class B common stock into Class A common stock, as well as buy back some outstanding shares. The result, the executives hoped, was to increase the price of Blockbuster's ailing shares and keep the company listed on the NYSE.
According to Blockbuster, the company's investors passed both measures to save the stock, but low voter turnout caused the company to not tally the required number of votes to approve the measure. The NYSE has now informed Blockbuster that it will delist it next week.
"Because the reverse-stock-split proposal was not approved by the requisite number of votes, the NYSE has informed the company that it intends to begin the process to delist both the Class A and Class B common stock," Blockbuster wrote in a statement.
As of this writing, Blockbuster's stock is trading at 18 cents per share. That stands in stark contrast to Netflix, which is enjoying a solid share price of $107.
That seems to be the theme for Blockbuster over the years. As Netflix was changing the rental business, Blockbuster failed to see the changing times, and it watched as its revenue declined over the years. In 2009, the company lost $517 million on revenue of $4 billion. Those losses came even with the company's decision to shutter nearly 1,000 brick-and-mortar stores to reduce expenses and make its operation more agile.
Meanwhile, Netflix is enjoying record-breaking revenue and profits. In 2009, the company generated $115 million in profit, thanks to an increase in membership, and users increasingly adopting its streaming service, which is being added to more and more products with each passing month.
Exactly what Blockbuster's future will look like is anyone's guess. By being delisted from the NYSE, it seems as if yet another nail has been put into its coffin.