Blockbuster in talks to sell itself?

According to a new report, bankrupt movie rental company Blockbuster will put itself up for sale, following a disagreement with its creditors.

The report claims that a bidder would likely offer $300 million, as well as assuming all debt and leases.

Blockbuster went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year in an effort to restructure debt and give it a chance to reemerge later. By doing so, the company has kept 3300 stores open but has almost wiped out shareholders and junior bondholders. The company had $1 billion in debt when it filed for bankruptcy.

The leading contender to win Blockbuster in auction is investor Carl Icahn and a consortium led by Monarch Alternative Capital, a large hedge fund. The group and Icahn own about 80 percent of Blockbuster's senior notes and gave Blockbuster $125 million to help fuel the turnaround.

Apparently, the company had poor holiday sales and therefore expects it will need more money. The hedge fund is not willing to pay more than the $125 million invested.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 10 Feb 2011 19:18

kubapolak

are they still around? Did anybody hear about netflix or redbox?

11.2.2011 00:08 #1

xaznboitx

yes, the only one around now is the one near my place... it used to be everywhere in each corner and now all but the one near place shut down. Redbox is at every store I go to.. though the one at Walmart 10mins away the Redbox is painted blue to match the color of the Walmart store haha.

11.2.2011 00:30 #2

KillerBug

For sale: 2 billions dollars of debt.

11.2.2011 00:39 #3

elbald90

i dont know about the US stores but the UK ones have been doing their best to price themselves out of the market for years

11.2.2011 03:21 #4

alexeemo

Originally posted by xaznboitx: yes, the only one around now is the one near my place... it used to be everywhere in each corner and now all but the one near place shut down. Redbox is at every store I go to.. though the one at Walmart 10mins away the Redbox is painted blue to match the color of the Walmart store haha. It's not painted blue to match walmart, it's blue because that unit offers blu-ray movies as well.

PSN ID alexeemo, Level 10, 484 Trophies and counting

11.2.2011 09:28 #5

carlvo

Quote:It's not painted blue to match walmart, it's blue because that unit offers blu-ray movies as well. No, you are wrong. Its painted blue because of Wal-mart.

11.2.2011 09:50 #6

BG (unverified)

11.2.2011 11:36 #7

Mr-Movies

It's funny how the wind changes. A few years ago everyone, not me of course, was spewing how great BlockBuster was and Netflix was shat. I just love to see the turn around and it is great to see this horrible organization who killed so many ma & pa stores go down the tubes. Yehhhhhh..... Just amother Planet Hollywierd California shat company going down.

11.2.2011 11:50 #8

DVDBack23

Any company that cannot see the writing on the wall and refuses to forward think deserves to go out of business. (Sorry record labels, that means you guys too)

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11.2.2011 12:24 #9

Mr-Movies

That would be good to see too!

11.2.2011 12:29 #10

POGK

I wonder how much of that debt was paid to studios to allow "exclusive" rentals and to bypass the 30 day new release wait imposed on other DVD rental outlets. Serves 'em right.

11.2.2011 12:55 #11

jimmurray

Blue/Red, In my area the blue boxes are blockbuster and red signifies red box. Seems there was a lot of confusion about redbox customers putting the disks into bbuster so now the colors are to avoid braindead users from making errors. Our Redbox location (at Wal-Mart) is red-boxes (imagine that!) and we have 2 boxes there, both carry DVD and Blueray. Safeway carries bbuster and they are blue.

jimmurray1946

11.2.2011 14:21 #12

alexeemo

Originally posted by carlvo: Quote:It's not painted blue to match walmart, it's blue because that unit offers blu-ray movies as well. No, you are wrong. Its painted blue because of Wal-mart. No.....you are wrong. I have an email subscription to Redbox and the email specifically said to look for the units that carry BD because they will be blue. I live in Utah(land of Walmarts on every corner ) and some are still red because they don't carry BD yet. Now that being said, that might have been there original intention but things have changed now that Blockbuster is intentionally trying to confuse braindead Redbox customers who can't tell the difference.

PSN ID alexeemo, Level 10, 484 Trophies and counting

11.2.2011 18:52 #13

Mr-Movies

Maybe they are blue because of Big Blue IBM, sorry I just had to add that the devil made me do it.

I see BB has "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" but they don't carry it in BD. Glad to see it is out already that means next month I'll be able to get it from Redbox in BD.

Do you think Redbox will change their name to Blu-Box and go to blue Kiosks' too? :)

11.2.2011 21:27 #14

carlvo

Originally posted by alexeemo: Originally posted by carlvo: Quote:It's not painted blue to match walmart, it's blue because that unit offers blu-ray movies as well. No, you are wrong. Its painted blue because of Wal-mart. No.....you are wrong. I have an email subscription to Redbox and the email specifically said to look for the units that carry BD because they will be blue. I live in Utah(land of Walmarts on every corner ) and some are still red because they don't carry BD yet. Now that being said, that might have been there original intention but things have changed now that Blockbuster is intentionally trying to confuse braindead Redbox customers who can't tell the difference. Nope. Still wrong. There are red Red Boxes all over the place. Most all of them have blu-rays in them. Walmart began requiring them to be blue in order for them to place them in their stores. No where but Walmart will you find a blue redbox.

(also, the email from redbox said to look for the bidg blu-ray sticker on the boxes that carry blu-rays, not that the whole box would be blue.)

Carl V. O.

11.2.2011 22:37 #15

alexeemo

Originally posted by carlvo: Originally posted by alexeemo: Originally posted by carlvo: Quote:It's not painted blue to match walmart, it's blue because that unit offers blu-ray movies as well. No, you are wrong. Its painted blue because of Wal-mart. No.....you are wrong. I have an email subscription to Redbox and the email specifically said to look for the units that carry BD because they will be blue. I live in Utah(land of Walmarts on every corner ) and some are still red because they don't carry BD yet. Now that being said, that might have been there original intention but things have changed now that Blockbuster is intentionally trying to confuse braindead Redbox customers who can't tell the difference. Nope. Still wrong. There are red Red Boxes all over the place. Most all of them have blu-rays in them. Walmart began requiring them to be blue in order for them to place them in their stores. No where but Walmart will you find a blue redbox.

(also, the email from redbox said to look for the bidg blu-ray sticker on the boxes that carry blu-rays, not that the whole box would be blue.) Next time I drive the hour and a half into SLC I'll be sure to take a pic of the non Walmart Redbox location or the red Redbox Walmart location as well

PSN ID alexeemo, Level 10, 484 Trophies and counting

11.2.2011 23:43 #16

core2kid

They are blue because they want to be blue.

Can we comment on something relevant to the subject?

12.2.2011 00:20 #17

KillerBug

Blockbuster is blue because of how you feel when you realize the movie you want to see isn't there.

Redbox is red for the color you see when you realize what qualifies as a movie these days.

12.2.2011 05:27 #18

ng6

Blockbuster is incompetent, but NetFux is actually malevolent. As bad as they suck, it's important to keep Blockbuster alive because NetFux has decided to follow their example and start sucking too. Now you can only get HALF or less of the new blu-ray releases from NetFux. But you can get nearly all of the other half without having to buy them if you subscribe to Blockbuster too. Blockbuster service really sucks but because of NetFux's deliberate slap-in-the-face to it's customers in favor of the studios and force-feeding everybody streaming diarrhea instead of blu-ray quality they have risen to become an equal to NetFux in just the last few months. I get roughly an equivalent number of blus each week from each service. That's an extreme downgrade from NetFux who used to deliver 90% of the blus. I used to get 8 out at a time from NetFux, now I'm down to 3 because they don't have anything to rent. I really wish a third competing service would come along and kick both of their asses, but barring that, I encourage all NetFux members to join Blockbuster and save this important Blu-ray resource from extinction. Or you can watch the Blu-ray format go down the toilet right behind them as you watch horribly compressed streaming crap with terrible navigation and no extra features forever.

12.2.2011 20:01 #19

core2kid

Problem with Blockbuster is their prices. I don't want to pay $6 for a BluRay and keep it for a week, it's not gonna take me a week to watch the movie!

12.2.2011 20:07 #20

jvwheel

I think the high prices are the reason BB is Bust....

13.2.2011 19:20 #21

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