It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in October for online retailing stocks. Christmas 1999, that is.
It isn't exactly the crime of the century.
For the past three years some of the world's most resourceful software engineers and mathematicians have worked feverishly in the spirit of friendly, Darwinian competition -- and in pursuit of a $1 million prize -- to improve the Netflix movie recommendation system by 10 percent.
You seemed a little bit interested in last Sunday's column: the one about the prospect of Saturday mail delivery being eliminated by the U.S. Postal Service.
When Christopher Moore isn't jumping rope, shooting baskets or playing the board game Chutes and Ladders, the 8-year-old can often be found at home using his ninja fighting skills, protecting the world from would-be enemies.
The news this week that Blockbuster Video has hired advisors to explore "restructuring" options, which analysts say could include a bankruptcy filing, is bittersweet to the movie rental business's remaining indie stores.
In light of our strained economy, how can you keep your love life intact and still scale back on spending?
What do you get when you fall in love? According the fan-freaking-tastic Dionne Warwick -- and she should know from heartache --"You get enough tears to fill an ocean/That's what you get for your devotion." Sing it, sister!
Netflix has just been basking in good news lately.
The genesis of Netflix came in 1997 when I got this late fee, about $40, for Apollo 13. I remember the fee because I was embarrassed about it. That was back in the VHS days, and it got me thinking that there's a big market out there.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in October for online retailing stocks. Christmas 1999, that is.
It isn't exactly the crime of the century.
For the past three years some of the world's most resourceful software engineers and mathematicians have worked feverishly in the spirit of friendly, Darwinian competition -- and in pursuit of a $1 million prize -- to improve the Netflix movie recommendation system by 10 percent.
You seemed a little bit interested in last Sunday's column: the one about the prospect of Saturday mail delivery being eliminated by the U.S. Postal Service.
When Christopher Moore isn't jumping rope, shooting baskets or playing the board game Chutes and Ladders, the 8-year-old can often be found at home using his ninja fighting skills, protecting the world from would-be enemies.
The news this week that Blockbuster Video has hired advisors to explore "restructuring" options, which analysts say could include a bankruptcy filing, is bittersweet to the movie rental business's remaining indie stores.
In light of our strained economy, how can you keep your love life intact and still scale back on spending?
What do you get when you fall in love? According the fan-freaking-tastic Dionne Warwick -- and she should know from heartache --"You get enough tears to fill an ocean/That's what you get for your devotion." Sing it, sister!
Netflix has just been basking in good news lately.
The genesis of Netflix came in 1997 when I got this late fee, about $40, for Apollo 13. I remember the fee because I was embarrassed about it. That was back in the VHS days, and it got me thinking that there's a big market out there.
LG Electronics said Monday it will market a high-definition television set that will instantly stream movies from the video rental service Netflix.
Home entertainment trendsetters Netflix Inc. and TiVo Inc. are finally joining forces to deliver more movies and old TV episodes to their mutual subscribers, consummating a relationship that was supposed to come together four years ago
Samsung Electronics Co. is equipping Blu-ray DVD players so they can retrieve movies and TV shows from Netflix Inc.'s Internet streaming service, accelerating Netflix's push to develop more delivery methods beyond the mail
Stock futures climbed Monday morning, lifted by a government plan to bolster ailing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
When economic ill-winds start to blow, consumer businesses like booze and cigarettes have turned out to be safe harbors for investors. Will video rental king Netflix prove the same?
A new business model - disposable DVDs - is taking aim at business travelers but taking hits from environmentalists
If you're a Netflix subscriber you may have noticed that in the last year or so the company has rolled out a Watch Now option that lets you instantly watch some of the movies and TV shows in the Netflix library on your Windows PC with a broadband connection.
A new set-top box by Roku and Netflix feeds thousands of videos to your TV at the push of a button
Like the Energizer bunny, Netflix keeps going and going and going. The online movie rental service is expected to prove doomsayers wrong yet again when it announces first-quarter earnings after the markets close Monday.
Despite the obesity epidemic, U.S. sales of Roche's weight-loss aid Xenical have slimmed by 30 percent since 2002, in part because the drug - which blocks the absorption of fats from rich foods - counts among its side effects "an inability to control bowel movements." But after licensing rights from Roche to sell a lower-dosage, over-the-counter variant, GlaxoSmithKline has gotten fat by marketing its version, Alli, with brutal honesty, flatly stating that taking it without dietary changes could lead to "treatment effects" that "might help you think twice about eating questionable fat."
Blockbuster said Wednesday it is buying the digital movie-download service Movielink, giving it a stronger online foothold to compete with its rival, Netflix
Netflix Inc.'s stock price plunged to its lowest point in more than two years Tuesday after the online DVD rental leader reported the first quarterly customer losses in its history and dimmed its earnings outlook for the rest of the year
Netflix Inc, the largest online DVD rental company, reported its first-ever quarterly drop in subscriptions and missed Wall Street revenue targets in the face of fierce competition from Blockbuster Inc.
Wall Street recovered nicely Monday from Friday's big selloff, with the Dow climbing over 100 points, following some dealmaking news and strong earnings from the drugmaker Merck.
Dealmaking activity on Wall Street that included a merger in the offshore drilling sector and surprisingly strong results from drugmaker Merck, helped send stocks higher Monday.
Video rental chain Blockbuster Inc. said Wednesday it settled a patent dispute with rival Netflix Inc. that challenged Blockbuster's entry into online DVD rental, but it signaled that the new business was taking a toll on its finances.
CEOs reveal the business strategies that put companies like Akamai, Netflix, and Priceline at the top of Business 2.0's ranking of the 100 fastest-growing technology companies.
When Netflix launched in 1999, it changed the way we rent movies. Today the company boasts nearly seven million members, but rival Blockbuster is gaining ground. Fortune's Matthew Boyle asked found...
U.S. stocks stalled at the start of trading Tuesday as investors await quarterly results from companies that include Intel.
Online movie rental service Netflix introduced a new feature Tuesday to allow customers to watch movies and television series on their personal computers and said it will make the new feature available to its subscribers in a phased rollout during the next six months.
Netflix and Amazon be warned: "Click-and-mortar" retailers like Sears.com and JCPenney.com showed the most improvement online this holiday season, an industry report said Wednesday, though they still lagged well behind the big "pure-play" Internet retailers.
Earlier this year Netflix CEO Reed Hastings popped the cork on a special bottle of bubbly - one that had been set aside to celebrate the company's signing up its five millionth subscriber.
Netflix ranks no. 18 on Fortune's 2006 list of the 100 Fastest-Growing Companies. The Los Gatos, California-based company saw profits rise at a rate of 253% and revenues grow 66% with a stock return of 29% on average annually over the past three years.
How are you going to watch movies at home in the future?
Most customers rave about online DVD rental service Netflix. But the stock is getting mixed reviews on Wall Street.
When the DVD first came out, Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings had a key insight:
1999 Made from cardboard, the first Netflix mailer weighs more than an ounce. But with only 100,000 customers, reducing material and shipping costs is not yet a priority for the company.
The MPAA has been caught making an unauthorized copy of a film submitted to it for rating. Making copies of motion pictures without the consent of the copyright owners is illegal is the MPAA's official stance on movie duplication -- but an MPAA spokesperson admitted that the organization copied This Film Is Not Yet Rated because it had implications for our employees. Filmmaker Kirby Dick, whose work looks at the MPAA's ratings process, had specifically instructed the MPAA not to make any copies.
Most movie studio executives are probably glad that 2005 is finally over.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Box office slump, shmox office slump. Many people still love to watch movies.
Online DVD rental pioneer Netflix Inc. said Thursday that it expects to have 5 million subscribers in 2006, one year earlier than the company had predicted.
Why aren't people going to movies as often as they did a few years ago?
Strong earnings from Texas Instruments and a rally in tech helped boost the Nasdaq composite Tuesday, while DuPont's earnings miss kept the Dow industrials in the red.
THEY LAUGHED AT eBay. Who would want to bid on other people's junk? They laughed at blogs too. Who would want to read the mundane daily musings of complete strangers? They're laughing at podcasts, ...
Reed Hastings, who co-founded the DVD-rental outfit Netflix in 1997, has long been portrayed as the innovative but doomed underdog. At first people scoffed at the idea that consumers would want to ...
Netflix shares have skyrocketed lately, but investors should be wary of getting carried away: The company is benefiting from turmoil at its biggest competitor, and may still face a tough pricing war.
Techs rose Thursday afternoon, heading for a fourth straight day of gains, as investors attempted to extend the week's run in a spurt of buying interest near the close.
Stocks were mixed early Thursday, as investors welcomed a drop in weekly jobless claims, but were reluctant to press further ahead after a stellar three-session rally.
Stocks managed gains Wednesday, recovering after a tough morning, as oil prices slumped and a brief security scare in Washington was resolved quickly.
"You're either in or you're out." That declaration, sternly purred by Teutonic temptress Heidi Klum, was the "You're fired" catchphrase for the recently completed hit show "Project Runway."
When I first met Reed Hastings in 1998, he had recently founded Netflix, but his main identity in Silicon Valley was as the first CEO of the lobbying outfit TechNet. I wasn't sure TechNet was remot...
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Here's an award you won't see Charlize Theron handing out on Sunday's Academy Awards: and the winner of the Biggest Cinematic Stock Flop of 2004 goes to...
Hidden in the swirling mists of a London fog stood Netflix investors' biggest fear. For months it was invisible, but last week the creature finally emerged in press release outlines.
Technology stocks made modest gains Friday after taking a beating in the previous session despite steep losses at high-profile companies Netflix and Juniper Networks.
Netflix Inc. shares tumbled nearly 37 percent in after-hours trading Thursday even after posting strong third-quarter earnings.
Malcolm X once famously said, "You're either part of the solution or part of the problem." To Netflix, I think I'm both.
Technology stocks managed to finish higher on Tuesday as investors shrugged off news that brokerage Lehman Brothers downgraded its ratings on Intel Corp. and National Semiconductor Corp.
Stocks surged Tuesday, boosted by falling oil prices and upbeat corporate news, amid renewed buying interest after the long holiday weekend
Did you know the Internet turns 35 today? Yep. Back in 1969 some folks at UCLA hooked together two computers and had them pass some data back and forth.
[HIT] Car talk. "What I gotta do to get that brand-new C outta you?" asked rapper Snoop Dogg in a voice-mail he left for Chrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche. A lot of auto buyers have been asking the same ...
Video rental chain Blockbuster Inc. is set to begin offering customers DVD's delivered to their home by mail, using the business model pioneered by NetFlix Inc.
It isn't Christmas in July for e-tailing stocks.
Technology stocks inched up slightly on Monday, led upward by software companies like tech bellwether Microsoft Corp.
Technology stocks ended mostly lower on Friday as weakness in the semiconductor sector overshadowed positive earnings news from tech bellwether IBM.
In the past couple of weeks, the market proved yet again that it is a fickle beast.
With the June employment report looming, stock futures were little changed Friday morning as oil prices eased a little from the prior day runup.
All eyes will be on the June jobs report Friday as investors look for more clues about the strength of the U.S. economy and the pace of inflation, trying to anticipate how aggressively the Fed will raise rates in coming months.
And speaking of actors: as head of the Screen Actors Guild, A. Robert Pisano is supposed to protect the thespians who make Hollywood dramas. But these days he's starring in a drama of his own.
For years, consumers who wanted to download movies had to use illicit peer-to-peer networks, chase fleeting offshore operations such as IWantTV.com, or put up with onerous restrictions on sites like MovieLink and CinemaNow.
TICKER PRICE P/E 52-WEEK RANGE DIVIDEND NFLX $30 59 $9 TO $40 NONE
Blockbuster is going national with an in-store subscription plan that allows its customers to rent an unlimited number of movies and keep up to 3 movie titles at a time without being charged late fees.
Tech company sales and earnings are booming. Internet stocks are scorching. And everybody's salivating about the next big IPO (Google, but of course).
Technology stocks fell again Thursday as worries about higher interest rates and weak semiconductor shares overshadowed solid results from companies like Texas Instruments Inc.
DVD rental company Netflix plans to start a video on demand service over the Internet next year, according to a published report.
Technology stocks ended mostly higher Thursday, led by big-name techs such as Oracle Corp., with some help from a positive report on manufacturing activity released just a day before Friday's all-important March payrolls report.
Technology stocks opened the week on a strong note as investors took advantage of recent pullback in the sector, and a newspaper's optimism in tech giant Hewlett-Packard also lent a hand.
Technology stocks failed to turn to the upside Tuesday after a survey showed U.S. consumer confidence sagged more than expected this month.
With a slew of earnings news streaming in this week, investors will be looking to see which companies have been turning a profit and which ones have been generating wider losses.
Perhaps you're thinking of getting a new watch. Yours is so passe: It only tells time. Thanks to Microsoft, now you can buy a watch that receives news, weather, e-mail, sports scores, stock prices,...
Earnings season is heating up, and eBay, Computer Associates and Netflix could be on the move Thursday, thanks to strong quarterly results.
Online ad spending jumped 13 percent through June. The biggest spenders were online content companies like Yahoo. Growth, however, came from entertainment retailers (including Netflix) and cable an...
Stu Pollard is your typical indie filmmaker: mid-30s, wide-eyed, earnest, and willing do just about anything to get people to see his movie. Four years ago, Pollard showed his $800,000 film around ...
Netflix is poised to make renting DVDs over the internet as common as, well, late fees for keeping Spider-Man out too long from the local Blockbuster. That is, if one of its competitors doesn't bea...
Reed Hastings plans to tower over his competition, but right now, on this Friday morning in Silicon Valley, he's towering over his employees. It's the weekly state-of-the-company staff meeting at N...
--BONDS ONLINE The Treasury Department continues to simplify buying bonds online. The latest: 100% paperless purchases at www.treasurydirect.gov. You can transfer money from your bank account (vs. ...
Now that the NBA finals, NHL playoffs, and World Cup have ended, it's time for the "Played Out" edition of the Hype Index. Below, some phenomena that have overstayed their welcome. Let's hope they ...
Item No. 1: After an 11-month Internet IPO drought, PayPal, a Silicon Valley company that facilitates payments over the Web, goes public in February. Its stock subsequently surges 107%, making it 2...
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