Netflix, A Division Of Wal-Mart?

from the that's-what-patents-are-good-for-these-days dept

Having just been awarded a (perhaps questionable) patent for their DVD subscription rental service, some are wondering what Netflix plans to do now. The obvious answer may be to send cease-and-desist letters to the two monsters stepping into their arena: Wal-Mart and Blockbuster. The problem, of course, is that both Wal-Mart and Viacom-owned Blockbuster have incredibly deep pockets to fight a patent that might not stand up to scrutiny. So, the rumors going around now, are that the patent is the perfect bargaining chip for Netflix to get acquired by Wal-Mart. It would probably be cheaper for them than fighting the patent, and it would bring them a ton of customers and the valuable customer database/recommendation system that Netflix uses.

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