Jim Keyes

Mayor Tom Will Be a Guitar Hero!

Mayor Tom Is Far From a Guitar Hero

Still Finding That Whole Blockbuster Downloading Kiosk Confusing

Blockbuster Creates DVD Rental "ATM." For Use in Blockbuster Stores. Jeez.

Blockbuster Wins Some, Loses a Lot

Dallas Moneymen Sink $12 Million Into a Big Ol' Bowl of Frozen Yogurt

Are the Stores Really the Keyes to Blockbuster's Success?

Plug and Play, or: Being Entertained Has Never Been So Easy! So They Say.

On the Technological Breakthrough Tuesday Before Thanksgiving, this news: Dallas-based Blockbuster has a set-top box it'd like to sell you for $99, through which you can beam into your home the latest and greatest in what passes for big-screen entertainment these days. Buy the OnDemand now, just in ... More >>

Keyes to Success, or: Blockbuster Will Try Anything, Even Concert Tickets

So, this is the future of Blockbuster -- as a seller of concert tickets? Which would make it, what, CD World? This morning comes the official word: The Dallas-based videotailer, whose set-top box is supposed to keep you out of the stores, is looking to bring folks back to the brick-and-mortars by te ... More >>

In 31 Pages, the Future of Blockbuster

Is this smaller-sized store the future of Blockbuster?Blockbuster held is annual shareholders meeting yesterday, and the presentation was chock-a-block with sneak peeks at the Dallas company's future -- or, at the very least, its plans for the future. After the jump you'll find the complete 31-page ... More >>

For A Former Video Store Giant, Blockbuster Is Not Having Such A Blockbuster Decade

Is this smaller-sized store the future of Blockbuster?Blockbuster held is annual shareholders meeting yesterday, and the presentation was chock-a-block with sneak peeks at the Dallas company's future -- or, at the very least, its plans for the future. After the jump you'll find the complete 31-page ... More >>

The Holidays Were Not Kind to Blockbuster As Performance Was "Well Below Expectations"

​Shortly before the end of the year, Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes told me that the Dallas-based videotailer is a "football team that's rebuilding. At first, the press is all over you. They're gonna hammer you, tell you you're dead, you'll never be as good as you were. Meanwhile, you're slowly buildin ... More >>

A Blockbuster Free-Fall

​Near the close of business Wednesday, we posted Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes's admission that the Christmas season delivered little more than a lump of coal for the Dallas-based videotailer, as in: "Our performance during the holidays was well below expectations." When I spoke with Keyes at great le ... More >>

Despite SEC Filing Warning of Possible Chapter 11, Blockbuster Remains Defiant

​At this late date, is there even any need to recount Blockbuster's myriad woes? They are innumerable, but to the list add this one: the possibility of having to file for Chapter 11. CEO Jim Keyes says that's so much nonsense, the doing of attorneys who have to give fair warning. But in the 148-pa ... More >>

Carl Icahn, Who Once Led the Charge to Remake Blockbuster, Closes His Account

​Around the time self-proclaimed shareholder activist Carl Icahn bought into Blockbuster half a decade ago, its stock was worth $10, give or take. He ultimately spent well over $300 million stocking up on shares, in large part to lead the effort that would lead to the ouster of then-CEO John Antio ... More >>

Twentieth Century Fox and Sony Are Really in the Blockbuster Biz With First Lien on Dallas Co.'s Canadian Assets

AfriGadgetFor now, at least, hold off turning those Blockbuster drop-off boxes into ovens, as this woman's done in Liberia.​Late Tuesday, Blockbuster announced two items of interest -- one of which, at least, has prompted a early-trading jump of 15 percent in the Renaissance Tower-based company's ... More >>

Slowly But Surely, Blockbuster's Stock is Rising. Why? The Little Things Count.

​A few days ago, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Renaissance Tower-based Blockbuster sent word: It's pushing back its shareholders meeting one month, to June 24. Said Tom Casey, the video-rental company's exec veep and CFO, "We believe the additional time will provide us w ... More >>

Greg Meyer's Gearing Up for a Nasty Proxy Fight at Blockbuster's June Meeting Downtown

Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes​On Sunday we mentioned the proxy fight brewing between Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes and shareholder Greg Meyer, the former CEO of DVDXpress (which eventually morphed into Redbox, more or less) and the man who, in 2005, told Blockbuster, look, get in the DVD-dispensing kiosk ... More >>

An Interview With the Shareholder Who Will Fight to Save Blockbuster, an "American Icon"

Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes at one of the prototype extreme makeovers debuted in Dallas in 2008​Had a long talk with Greg Meyer last night. He's the guy who owns 645,000 shares of Blockbuster -- more than any exec at Blockbuster, save for CEO Jim Keyes, whose stock comes with the title, and more tha ... More >>

And That Proxy Fight Over a Seat on Blockbuster's Board Just Got a Little Bit Uglier

​Look at it this way -- come June 24, when Blockbuster holds its annual shareholders meeting downtown, we'll be all done with this particular, and particularly ugly, chapter in the life of the "American icon." Till then, though, this latest development in Greg Meyer's attempt to snag a seat on the ... More >>

Is Blockbuster Headed for Prepackaged Bankruptcy? One Analyst Thinks So.

Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes​A few weeks ago, L.A.-based analyst Stan Manoukian told Bloomberg News that downtown-based Blockbuster "will cease to exist by 2013 for sure," for the most part because its bondholders think the debt-ridden company's worth pennies on the dollar. Now, according to Manoukia ... More >>

News & Notes: Hooray for the Ever-Expanding Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Blockbuster Keeps NYSE Listing and American's "YADA" Yada

U.S. Census Bureau​A little light lunchtime reading ...To begin with, the U.S. Census Bureau released its population estimates today, and, as usual, Texas -- and the DFWA (as in, Arlington) -- fared bestest in all the land. "Star of the Sun Belt," says here. And that means you, Frisco and McKinney ... More >>

The First of Two Blockbuster Blockbuster Announcements: NYSE Is Delisting Its Stock

​In about an hour, Blockbuster will release a second press release concerning, well, what we're not quite sure -- more than likely, though, it will deal with the fate of CEO Jim Keyes, whose contract with the company expires today. And, perhaps, it will address whether or not the downtown-based co ... More >>

"Um, No." Blockbuster Responds to Shareholders' Demands. And: A New Ad?

From the new Blockbuster commercial advertising its advantage over Netflix and Redbox with some new releases​For the past week -- which is to say, ever since Bronx bomber Harry Niko Celentano sent a letter to Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes demanding an emergency stockholder meeting -- I've been trying ... More >>

As Blockbuster Gets a Brief Reprieve From Creditors, Shareholders Demand An Answer

​It's been close to radio silence from Renaissance Tower for several weeks as Blockbuster tries to find "strategic partners" to keep the close-to-broke video giant-at-one-time out of the bankruptcy courts. But on Friday, Bloomberg reported that Jim Keyes and Co. will announce this week that they'v ... More >>

Blockbuster's Financials Worse Than Expected. But It Does Get Debt Repayment Extension.

Jim Keyes​Now we know why Blockbuster put off announcing its second-quarter financials last night: Says the downtown-based video-and-game-rental giant (well, once), it was getting its noteholders to sign off on a deal allows the company to keep $42.4 mil in debt payments for another few weeks. Tha ... More >>

L.A. Times: Blockbuster CEO Keyes Briefed Studios on Pending Prepackaged Bankruptcy

​Fifteen days ago, Blockbuster spokesperson Patty Sullivan told Unfair Park: The company's delay in releasing its what turned out to be dismal second-quarter stats had absolutely nothing to do with a pending prepackaged bankruptcy. "There will be no news announcing that," she said. Not until late ... More >>

Blockbuster Shareholders "Prepare our Legal Representation" Following Chapter 11 Report

​On the other side is the now-famous(ish) CNBC piece from June, in which Julia Boorstin asks Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes: "Will you file for bankruptcy?" -- to which he responds with a smile and an elusive answer about how this has been a rumor for the last 18 months and how "we've been doing our be ... More >>

Carl Icahn Can't Quit You, Blockbuster

​Earlier this year it appeared Carl Icahn was all done with Blockbuster: The one-time major shareholder in the downtown-based video-rentalist, the guy who led the charge to oust CEO John Antioco and replace him with Jim Keyes, resigned from its board in January. Then, in March, he began dumping st ... More >>

It's Official: Blockbuster Goes Chapter 11. Leader of Shareholders Demands CEO Resign.

​Woke up this morning to find an in-box full of Blockbuster releases, chief among them the downtown-based video-rentalist's announcement that, sure enough, this morning it filed for bankruptcy in a federal court in New York. Says the company, the voluntary, "prepackaged" Chapter 11 filing is the r ... More >>

Once More, Blockbuster to Close Out Year By Closing a Couple Hundred Stores

​It's been exactly a year now since our last extensive sit-down with Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes, who, at the time, referred to the downtown-based videotailer as "a football team that's rebuilding." At the very same time, Blockbuster was shuttering dozens of stores, including the location at Royal L ... More >>

Blockbuster Bankruptcy Suit Asks: What Did Carl Icahn Know and When Did He Know It?

​Blockbuster's slouching toward bankruptcy was easily one of the biggest local business stories of the year; from giant to joke, how the mighty had fallen. But since its Chapter 11 filing early on the morning of September 23, there'd been little to report during its reorganization, save for a noti ... More >>

WSJ: So Much For Blockbuster's Hopes of Reorganizing Under Ch. 11. It's For Sale.

​Back in September, beleaguered Blockbuster finally made it official: The downtown Dallas-based company was bankrupt. Hence, the voluntary, "prepackaged" Chapter 11 filing, which the company insisted would "substantially reduce" the amount of debt it owed -- from $1.46 billion to around $125 mill ... More >>

Rob Allyn Used to Run Local Politics. Now He's Making Movies in Indonesia.

Rob Allyn​Longtime observers of the local political landscape probably hear the name Rob Allyn and think of the Trinity River Corridor Project (Schutze insists it was Allyn who came up with those solar-powered water taxis), myriad mayoral campaigns, those Dubya ads attacking John McCain's environm ... More >>

Bloomberg Series Reveals How Netflix Needed Blockbuster ... Until It Killed Blockbuster

Former Blockbuster CEO John Antioco and Netflix founder Reed Hastings​Blockbuster, says a new 30-minute doc, was once "900 times the size of Netflix." Now, it's...well, you know the story. It's barely anything at all, except something owned by Dish Network, which hopes to use Blockbuster's by-mail ... More >>