Blockbuster + Circuit City = "Exclusive Content and Content-Enabled Devices" [Ominous]

Blockbuster has recently drawn the ire of movie enthusiasts by inking "exclusive" rental deals with the likes of IFC. The upshot of this deal is that Blockbuster will retain the exclusive physical rental distribution rights for IFC titles for three years after each street date. Why is this important? Because Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes wants to buy Circuit City for the following reason:

"The combination of Blockbuster and Circuit City will result in an $18 billion retail enterprise uniquely positioned for the convergence of media content and electronic devices," Keyes wrote. "We would seek to differentiate products in both Blockbuster and Circuit City stores by offering exclusive content and content-enabled devices.

Circuit City was initially unwilling to talk to Blockbuster, but today CNNMoney said that Circuit City has agreed to open its books:

"We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Circuit City to conduct due diligence and further explore a possible merger between our two companies," said Blockbuster's management in statement Friday. "We continue to believe this combination would create significant cost and operating synergies therefore unlocking substantial value for our shareholders."

We have to ask you... are you interested in "exclusive content and content-enabled devices" from Circuit City?

EBay Decides To Contact Tim About His Laptop Auction Problems [Follow Up]

Timothy, our hapless eBay seller who kept having problems listing his laptop on the auction site, was contacted by a Real Live Human from eBay the day after we posted his story. "Garrison" apologized for the frustration, and said he'd be making a note on Timothy's account to keep it from getting shut down by other agents. He also suggested several listing options that were pretty well-covered by our commenters in the original thread.

Here's Tim's email:

Just FYI: I have listed the auction for a sixth time (mostly because I think it’s funny now to watch eBay have to refund my listing fees repeatedly). About 15 hours after you posted the story, I got the following email from a human being at eBay:

Dear Timothy,   Thank you for writing eBay in regard to the issues with the laptop computer you have tried to sell.   I have taken the time to review your account and would first like to apologize for the frustration this has caused you.  It is very understandable that you would feel upset with the current activity and circumstances on your account.   Your auction was removed because there were concerns that a third party was potentially accessing your account and attempting to list the laptop for sale.  Please understand that the precautions that were taken were with the intent of protecting your account.   I will be adding documentation to your account to alert eBay agents that you are the legitimate owner of the account and are the one listing the laptop for sale.   I would like to share some recommendations with you about some features that could possibly assist you if decide to list your laptop computer for sale again.  First, you may want to use a feature called a bidder block.  To find out more about it and how it works, you might want to consider looking at the information in the eBay Help pages, at this link:   http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/manage_bidders_ov.html   You could also do a search for "bidder block" in the search field and that would bring up more information about the process as well.   Another feature that I would like to recommend would be the "Requiring Immediate Payment" feature.  Detailed information about this feature can be found at:   http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/immediatepayment.html   This feature requires that a person make payment immediately after clicking on the Buy It Now button.  The payment must be made with PayPal, and your auction will remain open until the payment is made.   Although this is not available for an auction-style listing, if there is a set price you would be willing to sell your laptop for it could help with the problems you've mentioned.   Please consider these as options if you decide to list any merchandise with eBay in the future.   Your trust and confidence is valued by us.  We want to earn that trust and confidence once again.   It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing eBay.   Sincerely,   Garrison eBay Customer Support

 
Thanks for your help getting a real response from them!
Tim

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