Is it me, or is BW absolutely desperate to whip up media buyout rumors, or rehash old ones? First it was the Facebook $2 billion valuation story, then some other wildly speculative stuff about Microsoft’s M&A ambitions, and now this almost a year-old story about Movielink-being-on-the-block-yet-not-finding-buyers story. This story says the online movie service Movielink, jointly owned by movie studios, was on the block but couldn’t find any buyers. That is true, except that formal process ended about a year ago.
Some “new” piece of information: the possible contenders, including Blockbuster, which itself is desperate to get its online strategy right; Comcast and AT&T. And that another potential buyer early on was former Warner Bros. home video chief Warren Lieberfarb, who put together a group of investors but couldn’t get the studio’s approval.
The process of talks has been going on low-key, on and off, since then, but that could be said about any media/distribution company these days.