Today an auction will be held to decide who the new owner of Blockbuster
04-04-2011
- by Opie Winfrey, Staff Mumbler
Once a monolith, Blockbuster Video has closed down hundreds of locations. Despite their best attempts at reorganization, Blockbuster has been going down like the Titanic.

The writing was on the wall. Netflix, and other companies that offer digital downloads of movies, have been chipping away at Blockbuster Video, which was once the biggest movie rental chain in the world. People took notice as locations closed and patrons were informed of the closest alternative location to get Blockbuster videos. In September 2010 the company filed for bankruptcy.

Blockbuster was first offered for sale in February of this year and now it will be auctioned off. Their online presence could be one of the factors that piqued Dish Networks interest in the falling giant. In addition to their brick-and-mortar presence, movies via mail and kiosk rentals, Blockbuster "has digital delivery agreements with Hollywood studios including Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Home and Universal Studios" according to Reuters

Many other companies and Carl Icahn, a billionaire investor, have qualified for the auction and submitted bids in an attempt to aquire what was once the "only national movie-rental store chain" in America (Dallas Morning News).