Blockbuster Buys Movielink

Blockbuster continues to mimic the Netflix business model with its purchase, announced today, of Movielink. Blockbuster started out renting movies brick-and-mortar style, then moved into by-mail rentals, and now will use Movielink to expand into online rentals and sales.

Here's the press release. The two companies aren't saying how much Blockbuster paid in the all-cash deal, but it's rumored to be well below the $50 million number mentioned when the two companies first began talking last February.

Movielink was among the first mass market Internet video services; it was created in 2002 as a joint venture between five major Hollywood studios: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal and Warner Bros. Blockbuster now gains the rights to much of the video content owned by those studios, and 30 others.

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