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Q1. Would you have been long or short Blockbuster stock at the time of the case? How about Netflix? Why ?
A1. Blockbuster was a giant in the rental industry. It enjoyed record levels of revenue and profitability up till 2002. Their main business strategy was around expanding geographic coverage and increase their share in market. They banked mostly on new releases and hits and the concept of an extended viewing fees. This was a good strategy for the time then, so I would have been a long Blockbuster up until 2002. The Blockbuster would have seemed as a solid investment. But approaching towards 2004 I would have changed my position to short as for the lowering of market shares of Blockbuster could have been anticipated. Blockbuster tried to enter the online services quite late, by which time Netflix, Redbox and other video on demand services had come into play. Blockbuster tried to use their current assets to advantage by integrating the existing blockbuster stores with online services, but they did not have a very strong model at hand. They also waived off the late fees which was a big source of their revenues, so they were incurring losses overall. As in the case of Netflix initially I would have been a short position as they targeted a very small amount of audience initially and they depended on the growth of technology in households. But as the technology grew, Netflix maintained its pace and proved itself to be the dark horse. So seeing its growth, I would have taken a long position which is also relatively less risky as an investment.

Q2. Did Netflix do the same jobs for consumers that Blockbuster did? How did this evolve over time?
A2. Netflix and Blockbuster were in the same market of DVD rentals but they did different jobs for consumers. Blockbuster banked on the impulsive decision of a ‘movie night’ and hence stocked new releases or only hits

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