According to a new report, bankrupt movie rental company Blockbuster will put itself up for sale, following a disagreement with its creditors.
The report claims that a bidder would likely offer $300 million, as well as assuming all debt and leases.
Blockbuster went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year in an effort to restructure debt and give it a chance to reemerge later. By doing so, the company has kept 3300 stores open but has almost wiped out shareholders and junior bondholders. The company had $1 billion in debt when it filed for bankruptcy.
The leading contender to win Blockbuster in auction is investor Carl Icahn and a consortium led by Monarch Alternative Capital, a large hedge fund. The group and Icahn own about 80 percent of Blockbuster’s senior notes and gave Blockbuster $125 million to help fuel the turnaround.
Apparently, the company had poor holiday sales and therefore expects it will need more money. The hedge fund is not willing to pay more than the $125 million invested.
Result for: consortium
The New York Times is citing sources familiar with plans to bring about an “iTunes for magazines”; an online newsstand to be developed by Time Inc., Condo Nast and Heasrt. According to the “people with knowledge of the plans,” the new venture may be announced in early December. The move is being made to counter continually declining print circulation for U.S. magazines.
The website would reportedly offer consumers the chance to buy print or electronic copies of their magazines. It would also develop software standards for viewing the content on iPhones, Blackberrys, eBook readers and other devices. According to the New York Observer, John Squires, a Time executive, would be the chief executive officer of the new online venture.
“The consortium provides one point of contact for the consumer,” the Observer quoted an unidentified source as saying. “When you come to the main store, you can get the content any way you want.” U.S. newspaper and magazine publishers have witnessed a steep decline in print advertising revenue as more of their readers turn to free content on the Internet to get their news.
Time Inc. alone is carrying out largescale layoffs after it had to let 600 staff go just last year. It publishers several popular magazines including Time, Fortune, Sports Illustrated and People.
Result for: consortium
Silicon Image, an innovative chip-maker that helped to pioneer< the High-definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) standard, has revealed its intention to make media available throughout the home on all available displays. The company touted LiquidHD at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The new technology can connect all televisions, Blu-ray / DVD players, games consoles, DVRs and computers to a single home network.
In use, a user could, for example, pause a video game or Blu-ray movie in the living room, and then go to another room in the house and resume play on a different television with just one remote control. “This is presaging a whole new generation of smarter consumer devices that are aware of each other and able to share content across a very cheap commodity network,” Silicon Image Chief Executive Steve Tirado said in an interview ahead of the start of CES.
The company has created a chip that manufacturers can embed in the next generation of television models, while it can offer software development kits for makers of games consoles, DVRs and Blu-ray players. TVs currently on the market can also be used with the system through the use of a small external device.
Silicon Image doesn’t expect to have the first products incorporating LiquidHD on the market until 2010, but has already gotten approval from Fox Studios for the security and content protection used by the technology. The company will form a consortium to develop an international LiquidHD standard and promote it, mimicking the approach used with HDMI. Over 800 manufacturers have adopted HDMI.
