Movie Gallery buys Hollywood Video (1 Viewer)

[TonyD]

just thought you'd like to know.

JAN. 10 | Movie Gallery on Monday announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Hollywood Video for $850 million.

The deal, which still must be approved by Hollywood's shareholders, appears to put an end to a chaotic and at times acrimonious scramble on the part of multiple suitors to acquire the No. 2 video rental chain.


http://www.videobusiness.com/article...1&catType=NEWS

 

[Raasean Asaad]

i'd like to read the article to see if they'll be changing their name but it requires registration

 

[DaveNel]

Well mebbe there reason for buying this is to have a monthly in store membership, And you pay once price and can rent 3-5 movies a day for like $30.00 or so a month.

Just a way to compete and make a Dollar in this type of Industry that changes daily...

 

[Don Black]

The name won't be changing. HV will operate as a subsidiary of MGC. The HV name will persist.

 

[StephenA]

All the Hollywood Videos around here have changed into a Movie Gallery a while ago. Not sure how long ago, but I'd say around a year at least.

 

[DaveNel]

Trust me the names will change in time, Usually when something is bought out the name has 80% of the time
went to the controlling company.

 

[Don Black]

Not going to happen. HV has much greater national brand awareness than MG.

 

[Citizen87645]

I only know of one Movie Gallery in the area, but then I am in the state HV headquarters is located...at least here I suspect HV will keep its name.

 

[Malcolm R]

What a shame. Movie Gallery is an awful company.

 

[Keith_R]

I'd never even heard of MG until recently, in fact I'm not even sure if we have any where I live.

I hope HV isn't forced to change though because I've always preferred renting from them over Blockbuster and most of the other places around me. I've found HV to have the best store-layout and greatest selection of new releases.

 

[Eric Peterson]

All I can say is thank God it wasn't Blockbuster that bought them. At least, I still have a B&M rental store now. I use Greencine to rent movies through the mail, but I still like having a B&M presence for renting new movies and for impulse rentals. I have 3 Hollywoods and 2 Blockbusters within reasonable driving distance of my house, and a Blockbuster merger would've been disastrous.

I hope that they keep the Hollywood name and appearance of the store. I've always thought that Hollywood did a great job of stocking smaller titles as well as classics, especially in comparison to the evil Blockbuster.

 

[Malcolm R]

If they convert them to anything like my MG, you'll see a drastic decline in the presence of classic and arthouse/independent types of films.

You will also see more catering towards full-screen.

True Story: I tried to buy a used copy of "Brother Bear" from MG. This film was a 2-disc release, with a "family friendly" ratio on Disc 1 and the full, theatrical widescreen ratio on Disc 2. Well, MG didn't want to deal with the whole 2-disc issue, so they just tossed all the copies of Disc 2 in the trash. So the only version for rent/resale was the single Disc 1 with MAR. The staff were dumb enough that they tried to convince me that the several places on the DVD cover where it refers to "Disc 2" or "2-disc set" were typos.

Also, MG employees are not authorized to make any decisions (i.e. refunds). So if you ever buy something there, and want to return it, you'd better make damn sure the manager is there. I tried to get a refund for the above fiasco and couldn't because the manager wasn't working at that time and "wasn't answering her phone at home." They finally did let me exchange it for another title after much negotiating.

I haven't been in MG since. Regardless of their reputation, Blockbuster is much more attractive and customer friendly than MG.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

A store that makes Blockbastard look GOOD? Ouch!

 

[TonyD]

BBV is still in it.


"FEB. 2 | Blockbuster has muddied up plans for a Movie Gallery-Hollywood Entertainment merger.

The No. 1 video rentailer today filed a dramatically improved bid for Hollywood that beats Gallery's offer for the chain by 9%.

Blockbuster's new cash and stock bid of $14.50 per share compares with a $13.25 per share from Gallery, which Hollywood's board has accepted. It had been widely expected that Blockbuster, which earlier filed an $11.50 offer for Hollywood, would sweeten its offer.

Blockbuster now has offered $11.50 in cash and $3 in Blockbuster class A common stock for each outstanding share of Hollywood, parent company to the Hollywood Video chain. The proposed transaction would have an estimated total value of more than $1.3 billion, with Blockbuster stating such an acquisition would be immediately accretive to its earnings and cash flow."



more here.

http://www.videobusiness.com/article...1&catType=NEWS