That is a long title for an article so let me give you a longer explanation for it. In the business world, the geek world, all worlds really there are companies that own the rights to cool things. It may be characters, libraries, properties, or a certain market. Along the way, these companies have some sort of financial troubles and a larger company comes along to buy them out. They pretend its for “noble” reasons. To save them. To ensure that the brand moves forward. But really its taking out the competition and exploiting the best resources within. So lets take a look at 4 brands that will most likely be absorbed into bigger brands within, oh, I’ll say the next five years.
Note, this is all just speculation. I have no connections in any of these worlds who are telling me inside information. Nor do I hope for the worst from any of these companies. I love seeing competition and seeing other smaller groups thrive. But it cant always happen. Finally, I wont be talking about banks or oil companies or anything like that. It will have some sort of geeky theme to it.
4. Netflix will buy out Blockbuster.
This is a given right? We all see this coming. Blockbuster just cannot keep up with Netflix. There are only 1000 Blockbuster stores left. Which, sure, that seems like a lot. But that’s only 20 per state. Those of you who live in bigger cities can probably think of 5 stores within driving distance of you. For a market as big and easy as “renting movies” there should be more stores. Back in the VHS boom every single grocery store had their own VHS rental section. Yet times have changed. First VHS tapes became very affordable and most tapes were between 10 and 20 dollars. Then DVD came along, cable TV got bigger and bigger, DVR and TiVos, BluRay players, downloading and now the easiest and deepest option of all, Netflix. Its cheaper, easier and more convenient to do Netflix than any other possible option. Sure, Blockbuster has their own streaming service. At its height 2 million people subscribed to it. As opposed to the last Netflix number of 10 times that. I have never, not once, seen anyone mention with great excitement what TV show or movie just got added to Blockbuster streaming. Blockbuster needs to give it up. There is no need to leave the house and get a new movie when it is easily available in your home. Or, worse case scenario, a day or two wait until an envelope shows up at the door. Actual stores for DVDs don’t work anymore as a franchise idea. Smaller stores for collectors and film buffs will always work. There are always collectors seeking out the rare and the desire to own their favorites. Blockbuster needs to call up Netflix and offer their warehouses of DVDs plus the list of the few who subscribe to their streaming service. You had a nice run, now its time to move on.
3. WWE will buy out TNA.
I like TNA, sometimes. Plus I’ve been a fan of wrestling for long enough to know that the best times come about from competition. From territories to WWF pay per views on the same night as an NWA Clash of the Champions up to the Monday Night Wars. The problem is, TNA is not competition. Not in the attendance, nor the ratings, nor the buy rates, nor the merchandise. However, for a company that is bringing in far less money they are spending far too much. Hogan and Hardy and Sting and Angle and RVD and the list goes on and on of men that are paid millions of dollars a year yet not delivering millions in return. TNA is trying and they do have some good ideas. Their imminent debut on Netflix will do nothing but increase viewership. However TNA has been trying new things for 10 years. Live on Monday nights, the six sided ring, and multiple gimmicks for every kind of match you can dream of and even more you cant. At some point their parent company is going to want to stop hemmoraging money. WWE would see dollar signs in adding to their video library. X Division, Knockouts, additions to biographical DVDs on Flair, Hogan, Sting, Punk and more. The library could be used to greater effect by WWE than TNA is currently doing. To go further, NXT wouldn’t be a bad show to have taped at Universal every week. I would love to see some of TNA’s homegrown talent in WWE just to see what happens. Who wouldn’t want to see CM Punk challenged by a mystery opponent only for it to be Samoa Joe? Businesses refuse to lose money forever, and unless something changes TNA will one day come up for sale.
2. Game Stop will be bought out by 100s of other stores.
Alright, this is a bit of a cheat, but follow me here. Much like Netflix showed us that people don’t need to buy DVDs anymore, the age of buying physical video games is coming to a close. Rumors are the next X-Box system wont even have a disc drive. It will all be hard drive and/or streaming. While collectors do love their possessions, why spend money on a cartridge when that same game is always available inside X-Box Live or PSN? To bring in another company to this, I’m not going to worry about finding an old NES if I can go on a Wii store and play Super Mario Bros. for a couple bucks. If a Netflix unlimited option comes up, then this idea becomes even more desirable. Chances are with a lack of new product, stores like Game Stop will go under. Malls across America will see the nearby FYE or Lids expand into the now vacant spot. Strip malls will have a spot for another Shoe Dept or Radio Shack (speaking of a business that shouldn’t be around anymore) or Cato or Verizon. Best of all, the video game collectors will start to build their own stores. It would be great to go into a Game Stop and buy old NES, Genesis, Atari and more games. Just because current graphics are better, doesn’t mean these games aren’t still fun. As video games move forward, their past becomes all the more important and the items of this past should be found in better places than yard sales and thrift stores.
1. Marvel will buy DC Comics.
I know what you’re thinking, this is crazy. The truth is, it almost happened once already. That’s right. Check out the full story at the link below, but I’ll summarize:
In 1984 DC Comics was losing money and offered themselves up to Marvel Comics. Those with brains in Marvel put together a proposal and were excited for this purchase. But the money men squashed it. There were two main reasons for stopping the sale. One, higher ups thought that if DC isn’t selling books it must mean the characters are bad and wont sell. Which is just ignorant. Two, Marvel was in the middle of an anti trust lawsuit (which they beat) and buying out your main competitor isn’t the best thing to do at such a time.
So why did DC offer up their franchise? Well, at the time Marvel had 69% of the market to DC’s 18%. A wide margin. DC wanted to hand over the money losing comics to Marvel, but DC would still produce merchandise. So they split the character rights, and Warner Bros gets to write off the money losing comic books.
Well, we’re in a situation in which that could happen again. Comics are still money losers. The fact is that the comics come after the merchandise and the movies. We are honestly lucky that so many comics are still put out every month. The movies, TV, toys and everything else bring in more cash than the books. The Avengers has made over a billion dollars and is the number three movie of all time, yet the comics sell far less than a million copies each issue. Same with DC’s franchises like Batman, Superman, etc. The comics don’t sell as much as they “should” considering how many people enjoy the rest of the products with those same faces.
So DC offered up the characters in 1984. Lets see what DC has done since then – constant reboots. All in a desire to boost sales and keep these characters relevant. It works for a while then sales drop again. Meanwhile, Marvel’s sales aren’t perfect either. But on the other side they have the number one movie of the year, multiple movie franchises, numerous TV shows, the Disney partnership. Loads of exposure. Kids know Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine and the Hulk at the same level previously held only by Superman and Batman. Your non comic book reading family members currently know more Marvel owned characters than DC.
If Warner Bros made a similar offer today. They still make movies and TV shows, and have some toys but Marvel can publish all of the comics and absorb the characters into the Marvel Universe, I see no reason not to take it. More money, more profit, more exposure. Start with the shared comics and eventually they will probably get all the rights. Look at the Marvel movies for example. Sure Fox currently has the Fantastic Four rights, but we all expect Marvel to get those back soon.
And that monopoly problem? The Walking Dead is about to be the best selling comic book of the year. That is not a Marvel nor a DC book. So I don’t see that being a problem.
