Blockbuster Declares Bankruptcy, Netflix Smirks

The day had finally arrived; Blockbuster has finally filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Chapter 11 means that the company will have the opportunity to reorganize and rid itself of cumbersome debt. In the filing, Blockbuster listed $1.02 billion in assets, and $1.46 billion in debt. The company expects to be able to reduce its total debt to a mere $125 million.
Blockbuster has been seeing steadily decreasing sales as digital services like Netflix have taken of in recent years. The Dallas-based company has about 3000 stores currently. They are expected to close as many as 1000 of them. After they complete reorganization, Blockbuster will attempt to focus more on digital content delivery. Considering the lateness of this push, they'll have a lot of catching up to do.
The future is unclear for the brick and mortar chain. They have been able to bundle video rental app with some phones as of late, and this could be a possible way to move forward. We'd also like to see a viable competitor to Netflix in the online streaming category. But the worry is that content would become increasingly siloed; exclusive to one company or the other. Do you think Blockbuster can find a place in the market?

Image via RocketRaccoon on Flickr