After last month's announcement that his company would split in to two businesses, a streaming video service and a DVD-by-mail service, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has already decided to send back that idea like an unwatched Cameron Diaz DVD. After getting slammed over the decision to raise subscription prices and force users of both services to create multiple accounts, Hastings apparently heard the backlash (and the 60% dip in the stock price, probably) and has decided to keep both portions of the business under the existing Netflix brand. Hastings said in a blog post this morning: more ›

After losing an astounding 40-50% share value in two months over a botched and wildly-publicized price increase between DVD delivery and live streaming, Netflix just announced plans to split the company into two entities: Netflix (for streaming) and Qwikster (for DVD by mail). In a lengthy post, titled "An Explanation and Some Reflections," on the company's site, co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings explained: more ›

Netflix had to lower its expectations of how many subscribers it would have by the end of the third quarter yesterday, putting that number at 24 million instead of the 25 million they thought they'd have back in July. The cost to shareholders so far has been some $6 billion, following Netflix's controversial move to raise subscription prices as much as 60% effective September 1. more ›

The Los Gatos Town Council last night voted 3-2 to approve a new 550,000-square-foot office campus for Netflix, despite some concerns from residents about obstructing views and removal of mature trees (But what happens if everyone cancels their accounts over those hefty new fees?) more ›

It seems like just yesterday we were lamenting the death of Blockbuster. Now that everyone is suddenly OVER Netflix and their fascist rate hike, here's a brief list of neighborhood video stores where you can walk in, talk to someone, leisurely peruse their aisles of soon-to-be-antiquated plastic discs and maybe even take one home with you if it suits your fancy: more ›

Your days of enjoying a combo plan of getting a disc or two via those red envelopes in the mail and streaming content from California-based Netflix are numbered, kids. Starting September 1, the popular site is implementing separate plans for streaming and physical disc borrowing. more ›

Last week, The New York Times published a series of interesting mashups showing Netflix rental patterns among different neighborhoods in 12 different cities across this diverse land of ours. Among those cities is our own salty burg and its immediate environs. The maps are pretty interesting and appear to support what this writer has long suspected; the Newark/Fremont/Union City triplex is the anti-San Francisco! more ›

Word on Wall Street is that Silicon Valley's Netflix, who in just 12 years has changed the way we rent movies while clobbering Blockbuster's power, might be bought out by Amazon. According to CBS 5, "[t]he Los Gatos-based Netflix recently began offering online streaming of some movies, which is why Amazon may be interested in buying the company." Neither company, of course, has yet to comment on Wall Street's rumors. more ›