This confirms the walk down two weeks ago and about what will have to happen for competition to compete. Man can I call it!
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Blockbuster blastoff: Confirming what I originally wrote several weeks ago in Herb Greenberg's RealityCheck, Blockbuster formally rolled out its online DVD rental business Wednesday, competing head-on with Netflix (NFLX: news, chart, profile) for $2 per month less for three-movie rentals.
The rollout is months earlier than Blockbuster's original guidance, which was for late 2004 and early 2005. Blockbuster also boasts a larger film library.
Key to watch will be the full integration next year of Blockbuster's online offering with its in-store rental business. In the first step toward that, every month Blockbuster (BBI: news, chart, profile) will offer subscribers two free in-store movie rental coupons. Later, they'll be able to return movies rented online in the store; they can also rent in store but get harder-to-find movies online. "It will be difficult for any store-based or online retailer to replicate our business model...," the company said. As a result, it's predicting that it will "develop a substantial share of the online rental business by the end of the year."
To that end, Blockbuster also says it has formed marketing alliances with MSN and AOL.
Blockbuster says the move will "enhance" its profit margins. Does that mean it will be a better investment? Time will tell. About the only certainty is that by adding a strong online presence -- assuming it can execute as well as Netflix as its mail-order business rolls out -- Blockbuster has gone from being the worst house to the best house in a bad neighborhood.
Plenty of skeptics have suggested for many years that no matter how much the owners try to improve the houses, property values can only fall in this neighborhood.
Tech talk: Investors are a-twitter today over Cisco's (CSCO: news, chart, profile) comments regarding the economy and tech demand and other issues related to technology companies. Hate to say I told you so, but -- I told you so!
Actually, Techtel CEO Mike Kelly told you so here on July 23 that his polling of corporate purchasing managers that tech spending had flattened. (No wonder so much inventory has been piling up.) See earlier column.
Black Boxed-in: In a terse SEC filing Tuesday Black Box (BBOX: news, chart, profile), which has long been the focus of accounting sleuths, said that Ernst & Young had quit as its auditor, two years after being hired to replace Arthur Andersen. The company said there were no disagreements.
Of course, there are never any disagreements. All of these auditors leave out of the goodness of their hearts.
