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Blockbuster Stock Tumbles After Apple's Movie Rental Announcement

by Terrence O'Brien on January 17, 2008 at 11:51 AM

Apple's Movie Rentals Push Blockbuster to the Brink
As if Blockbuster wasn't suffering enough at the hands of Netflix, Apple's announcement of movie rentals was like rubbing salt in an open wound. Following the announcement, Blockbuster stock prices fell 54 cents, or 16.7 percent to end the day at $2.69. Netflix prices also dropped, but only 3.2 percent.

Blockbuster has been struggling to compete with Netflix mail order rentals and online content deliver, which was made completely free and unlimited to subscribers ahead of the anticipated debut of iTunes' movie rentals. Over the past several months, Blockbuster's web site traffic has dwindled, stores have closed, and massive layoffs seem unavoidable. The national movie rental chain's stock prices are about half of what they were as recently as November.

Instead of stemming the tide Blockbuster just seems to be slipping faster and faster into a footnote in content delivery history. The iTune's rentals may just be the nail in the coffin.

From Newsvine

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Tags: apple, blockbuster, itunes, movies, netflix, rentals

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