The Block Is Busted: Video Rental Giant Files For Bankruptcy
"Blockbuster is under the gun now to generate as much cash as possible," said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. "When they were run by shareholders, the company was making investments and trying to grow. Now that they've been seized by creditors... Blockbuster will have to manage the business as lean as possible."
In theory, the Blockbuster brand still contains value and the retail locations themselves are probably sitting on some prime land, but the very nature of this discussion highlights how much the market has changed. Even ten years ago, the idea that a home entertainment monster like Blockbuster would find itself in bankruptcy was ridiculous. Now, the question is how effectively BB can compete with companies like Netflix and Redbox, assuming it'll ever be able to compete again at all.