There are press reports that Blockbuster, the video rental company, may be unable to stay in business because of an possible inability to complete credit deals that would keep it liquid. This admission, according to reports, came in the form of the company’s most recent fling with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- KC's View:
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Certainly some of this blame is going to be laid at the feet of the current credit crisis, but this remains a remarkable turn of events for a company that at one point pretty much owned the national video rental business.
I would suggest that perhaps the company’s problems are rooted in an inability to see the Netflix threat, which essentially eliminated the necessity for brick-and-mortar stores, and to count on old-world business models at a time when online rentals and downloading were growing. Sure, it tried to adjust…but then it made claims about late fees in its advertising that were misleading if not downright lies, and got called on them.
It just goes to show that nobody is immune to the changes that are taking place in the economy and the culture. And if we’re all not attuned to them, we run the risk of being irrelevant…and, as a result, out of business.
