Blockbuster continues its decline, posts $425M loss in Q4

Blockbuster continues its downward spiral with the once powerful movie rental company now posting yet another quarterly loss. Bad news across the board with sales plunging 16%, revenue falling 18%, and an income loss of $425 million which exceeds the $360 million loss posted in Q4 2008. Blockbuster is in tough shape; its stock is hovering around $0.31, a point that places its future on the NYSE at risk, and analysts en masse are questioning if it has the ability to repay its debts which total $964 million. In an attempt to reverse this trend, Blockbuster is closing stores, shuttering 253 of them last month with another 150 planned for April, and extending its reach by offering a video by mail service, an on-demand video streaming service, and is introducing kiosks which offer movie rentals without the overhead costs associated with a brick and mortar store. Blockbuster is jumping feet first into the kiosk market, rolling out 2,000 kiosks in 2009 with another 7,000 planned for 2010. This may be a little too little, a little too late as kiosk rental champion Redbox continues to eat away Blockbusters market share and Netflix, Blockbuster’s primary rival, is laughing all the way to the bank with $31 million in quarterly income and 12.3 million subscribers in tow.

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