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Video - Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Porn Netflix (WantedList) Buys Indie Netflix (Greencine)

Indie film meets Netflix video rental startup GreenCine has been bought by porno meets Netflix WantedList. Cinematech reports that GreenCine wants to keep the deal quit. We reported on GreenCine here back in 2004.

We took at look at Van Nuys-based Wanted List and sure enough it has been buying up other DVD rental companies. It bought FlickSmart and RentFlixxx in 2004 as well as Video Takeout and Flick Central. WantedList claims 250K subscribers and 20K adult DVD titles in stock. It was founded by two former for Arthur Andersen consultants who launched the business in 1999.

As an aside, this raises a trend that has been bugging us of late. Conversation online and off more and more seems to center on questions like "Do you think startup x will be bought?" Or assertions like "He's a star because he was with company Y which was bought." The implication seems to be these days that any buyout is a good buyout. More often than not buyout deals are a bummer. In this case, Creencine certainly didn't want to be bought by WantedList but was forced to out of desperation. Other deals that sound great turn out to be washouts where the VCs got their money back but everyone else in the company is lucky to keep their job. We met with a smart net mogul recently who seems to ask about every such statement: "Was it a good buyout or a bad buyout.?"

Read - Cinematech via NewTeeVee