Web retailers are racing to sell videotapes
Article Abstract:
A growing online video sales market probably will generate price competition that could reduce profit margins and create industry tension with movie studios. An example is Reel.com, which lost $6 on each of the more than 200,000 copies of "Titanic" that the start-up sold for $9.99. Paramount reportedly objected to the recent publicity stunt, but Reel.com claims it gained new customers as well as publicity. Reel.com, which video-rental chain Hollywood Entertainment is acquiring for $100 million, introduced a Web site in 1997. Company founder and movie buff Stuart Skorman prepared a cross-referenced index card system that helps to match customers' interests with more than 300 movie categories based on previous purchases or favorite pictures. Other companies are joining a market that totaled $9.3 billion in 1997 sales. Amazon.com's purchase of the Internet Movie Database in Apr 1998 represents the planned video site's new network, but Amazon.com will not disclose an opening date.
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0193-2241
Year: 1998
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
A TV titan and a Webmaster clash over Lycos
Article Abstract:
The chairman and CEO of CMGI Inc., David S. Wetherell, opposes the merger of Barry Diller's USA Networks Inc. with Lycos Inc., a Web portal company he founded in the mid-90's. When other investors questioned the proposed stock swap as favoring Mr. Diller, Lycos' share value dropped by one-third from $6.6 billion to $4.42 billion. With the decline in CMGI's 18.5% investment from $1.2 billion to just over $800 million, Mr. Wetherell asked that the deal be renegotiated, then hired Morgan Stanley Dean Witter to search for other buyers. Wetherell, who went from a venture capitalist helping to fund a start-up to overseeing an initial public offering, then to a merger proposal, may be involved in a hostile takeover of the company he created.
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0193-2241
Year: 1999
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Web retailers are racing to sell videotapes
Article Abstract:
Online retailers are trying to capture a share of the videotape business, which grossed $9.3 billion in sales and $11.2 billion in rentals in 1997. Reel.com began selling videotapes online in 1997, and is in 1998 being purchased by Hollywood Entertainment Corp. for $100 million. Amazon.com is also setting up a video sales division based on the Internet Movie Database organization it acquired in April 1998. Traditional video outlet Blockbuster Entertainment also has a website, but does not promote it heavily and uses it mostly for drawing traffic to its stores.
Comment:
Traditional video rental stores see online video sales more as competition than as opportunity
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0193-2241
Year: 1998
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Business portal opens to a crowded market. Log on faster, lower-fee mortgages
- Abstracts: The management and financing game hots up. Looking after the little guys' leases. What to look for in a crowded field
- Abstracts: 2 book giants in global deal to sell titles via Internet. Microsoft and Barnes & Noble join forces. The next trick for Amazon.com: auctions; the leading on-line bookseller hopes to pose a challenge to eBay
- Abstracts: Bank (Midwest) industry. Bank Industry
- Abstracts: Precision instrument industry. Foreign electronics/entertainment