Former Blockbuster CEO and Investor Square Off Over Company's Failure - VideoNuze

Former Blockbuster CEO and Investor Square Off Over Company's Failure

Friday, March 25, 2011, 10:23 AM ET

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Posted by Will Richmond

Coincidentally, as I was writing "Could HBO be the Next Blockbuster?" an essay appeared in Harvard Business Review this week by former Blockbuster CEO John Antioco describing his experience at the company and interactions with activist investor Carl Icahn. After the essay Icahn responds, to which Antioco then responds. It's a fascinating exchange.

For his part Antioco says he recognized late fees needed to be eliminated and that Blockbuster's data showed stores that did so became outperforms. He also says that had Blockbuster Online continued, he believes it would have 10 million subscribers today. Best of all though is that after he left Blockbuster, he purchased Netflix stock at $20/share, though he sold it at $35, therefore missing its run to over $200 in the past year. Icahn calls Blockbuster the worst investment he ever made, and Antioco believes Icahn lost about $200 million on his investment. What a sorry tale Blockbuster's demise has been.

Categories: Aggregators

Topics: Blockbuster, Netflix

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