Blockbuster Inc. was founded in 1982 by David Cook, a computer services entrepreneur. The headquarters were in Dallas, Texas. The first Blockbuster Video outlet was open in October 1985, in Dallas. This store housed 8,000 tapes with 6,500 titles. Due to financial troubles Cook sold some of the Blockbusters shares to Wayne Huizenga in February 1987 and by April was forced to turn over future control of the company and Cook left for good.
Huizenga then moved the headquarters to Fort Lauderdale, FL. Blockbuster had 187 stores operating by the end of 1987 they were also according to their revenues the fifth-largest video chain in the United States. These revenues consisted of the late fees they charged their customers and the regular operations of the business. Blockbuster Inc. is known as a leading global provider of in-home movie and game entertainment. They are located throughout America, Asia, Australia and Europe operating about 8,000 stores.
However, by the end of 1993, Blockbusters stock dropped due to a merger with Viacom which led Huizenga turning over control of the company. According to Blockbusters website this is their mission statement: “Our corporate mission is to provide our customers with the most convenient access to media entertainment, including movie and game entertainment delivered through multiple distribution channels such as our stores, by-mail, vending and kiosks, online and at home.
We believe Blockbuster offers customers a value-prices entertainment experience, combining the broad product depth of a specialty retailer with local neighborhood convenience. ” Blockbuster has several competitors like Netflix, Redbox and Nintendo. Netflix offers its customers online movie rentals with no late fees and due dates or any shipping costs. Netflix is the world’s largest online movie rental services and in 2007 they already had 75 percent of the market by 2009 they had over 10 million subscribers.
