Reminder: In 2000, Blockbuster turned down the opportunity to buy Netflix for $50 million
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The Blockbuster location released a retro-themed Super Bowl-like ad on social media during the big game on February 12 — and the video ad went viral.
"We cannot afford to spend $7 million," [manager Sandi Hardin ] said, explaining why they chose to post the ad on social media rather than on television.
The advertisement shows a lonely, post-apocalyptic cockroach roaming the streets looking for something — before eventually finding the last Blockbuster location on earth.
Here’s how one Netflix founder remembers its sales pitch to the giant:
Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph describes the moment in which he and his colleague Reed Hastings met with Blockbuster executives in 2000 with the hope that the video-rental chain would purchase their company for $50 million.
… Randolph recalls distinctly feeling like the scrappy upstart and being intimidated by Blockbuster and the company’s impressive offices. “The walls of Blockbuster’s lobby, like ours, were covered with framed movie posters, though I couldn’t help but notice that Blockbuster’s were framed considerably more tastefully, each movie in its own gleaming stainless steel frame, encircled by a ring of light bulbs like the marquee posters you see in theatre lobbies,” writes Randolph.
“’Do you know what those things cost?’ I couldn’t help but mutter to Reed, as we were ushered into the conference room. I was already feeling a little like a country mouse in the big city – and in my shorts and T-shirt, a little chilly in the arctic blast of Texan AC – when the Blockbuster boys came in and introduced themselves.”
Randolph describes looking under-dressed, particularly in comparison to Blockbuster CEO John Antioco and his “beautiful Italian shoes.” But what really stands out in the book is the exchange that took place between the two businessmen, as Randolph and Hastings made an offer of $50 million for Blockbuster to buy their company.
“Through Reed’s pitch and Barry’s windup, I had been watching Antioco,” recalls Randolph. “I had seen him use all the tricks that I’d also learned over the years: lean in, make eye contact, nod slowly when the speaker turns in your direction. Frame questions in a way that makes it clear you’re listening. But now that Reed had named a number, I saw something new, something I didn’t recognise, his earnest expression slightly unbalanced by a turning up at the corner of his mouth. It was tiny, involuntary, and vanished almost immediately. But as soon as I saw it, I knew what was happening: John Antioco was struggling not to laugh.”
Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy just a few years after that chuckle fest, in 2010, and now only one privately owned store in the world remains open. Today, Laughing John Antioco “is best known for being the former CEO of Blockbuster Video who missed an opportunity to purchase Netflix before it became a multi-billion dollar streaming platform”.
It’s nice to be known for something, I suppose.
