Well, you’ll never guess what …
Engadget reports that Blockbuster has been trying to buy Circuit City since February, and that the offer has not been particularly well-received; Circuit City is dragging its feet on the due diligence, and isn’t it adorable that I say that like I know what I’m talking about?
I have no great love for Circuit City; the New York stores I’ve visited always seem understocked and overpriced, and a decade ago they nearly crippled the nascent DVD format with the pay-per-use Divx platform. (Because the world was crying out for full-frame, supplement-free presentations that cost $2.99 every time you pull them off your shelf.)
Still, I don’t really see Blockbuster’s strategy here. The rental model has taken a hit, sure, but DVD player sales have plateaued and Blockbuster already sells music and movies, so what’s the advantage to owning Circuit City?
Computer hardware? Are digital downloads are closer to viability than we thought? If so, color me surprised … and put me down for one of those terabyte external hard drives, I guess.
DIVX; there’s a blast from the past. Still feels like a car accident narrowly averted.
DiVx and Wing Commander — Two horrible memories in one frightening image. 🙂
Yeah, sometimes a picture really does say a thousand words. Of course, 997 of them are a kind of gargling retching noise rather than an actual word, but still.
At least Wing Commander was the first movie to bring us the “bullet time” effect. I don’t think DiVx made any useful contribution to either cinema or human culture in general.