Loudmouth with laryngitis

This is what happens when I take my medicine. Here are some business stories you might have missed:

Petty grand larceny
Wall Street’s Bonnie and Clyde, Randi and Christopher Collotta absconded with $14 million worth of inside information, traded to 12 other offenders. This averages beautifully to $1 million per participant. Not much to get busted for, but this still makes me want to get into the high profile lawyer bracket. Preference? Prosecution.

Double B looks for the steal
Blockbuster’s sweet on Movielink Inc. “Movielink, based in Santa Monica, California, is a studio jointly owned by MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal and Warner Bros.” (People’s Daily Online)

The ‘Buster is banking on renters’s slow migration to downloads over the next five years. But at only $50 million, the studio execs have half a decade to hold out for more. And they should. As entertainment and computing continue to integrate downloads will steal DVD, HD, and Blu-ray discs’s thunder.

Good first impression doesn’t last: Netflix is fixed
Late last month Blockbuster rival Netflix delivered its astonishing billionth DVD. Big deal. That milestone should have come sooner. During fall 2005 I had 3 film classes. I was watching four or five or six movies a week and grew tired of falling asleep in the library with my headphones on. An epiphany or a “duh!” struck me: why not sign up for the free Netflix trial; there’s a temporary fix! The movies rolled in to my tiny college P.O. Box, and I volleyed ‘em back as fast as Netflix served ‘em, often I’d watch a disc and mail it back the same day. After the trial I decided why end a beautiful friendship? Things went well for a few weeks and then after midterms and Thanksgiving break, our relationship began to break down. No matter how fast I devoured and returned the DVDs, Netflix slowed shipment significantly. Back in the library, yet still paying my online rental dues, I sometimes sent discs back the same day, not because I rushed to the dorm and watched them, sealing the DVDs, still hot from the player, in return envelopes, but because I’d already seen the film at the library or borrowed a copy. I cancelled the service before the next billing cycle. A few months later I found out I wasn’t alone: http://redtape.msnbc.com/2005/11/consumer_to_pay.html --but now I hardly watch one movie weekly, so four free rentals induces yawns.