Blockbuster to Close Its 300 Remaining Stores in US

choi

Martin Peers and Shalini Ramachandran, Dish Network to Close Its Remaining US Blockbuster Stores; Move ends an era in home entertainment and reflects rise of alternatives like Netflix. Wall Street Journal, Nov 7, 2013.
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303763804579181853996821712

Quote:

(a) "Dish [network Corp], which bought the Blockbuster video-rental chain out of bankruptcy in 2011, said it would close the roughly 300 remaining stores it owns by early January[, 2014]. About 50 stores in the US operated by franchisees, and more overseas, will remain open.

(b) "From its origins in the 1980s, when consumers still considered renting and watching movies at their own convenience a relative novelty, Blockbuster grew into a goliath. It had roughly 5,500 stores nationwide as recently as 2005, including franchised locations.

"But the chain's dominance began to erode as DVDs replaced videocassettes, allowing rivals like  Netflix Inc to emerge, renting DVDs through the mail. Later, digital delivery took off, including video-on-demand services offered by cable TV and on the Web. More recently, Netflix has expanded into streaming movies and TV shows online, while another rival,  Outerwall Inc's Redbox, has rented DVDs through kiosks and expanded into streaming online.

(c) "Entrepreneur Wayne Huizenga, who built Blockbuster into a big company, sold it to Viacom Inc for nearly $8 billion in stock in 1994.

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.
(b) David Cook opened the first Blockbuster store in 1985 in Dallas. The chain was sold in 1987 to Wayne Huizenga, who in 1968 co-founded Houston-based Waste Management Inc.
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