Blockbuster not such a Blockbuster anymore

Remember the days when the whole family would pile into the car to drive down to Blockbuster and pick up a family-friendly movie to watch after TGIF on ABC? Ah, the golden age of Blockbuster -- in deed the golden age of entertainment before the Intenet -- certainly before YouTube.

As with all things tangible that we can drive to, with the exception of buying clothing, food, and gasoline, Blockbuster is rumored to be the next giant to fall into bankruptcy. It doesn't come as a surprise; even with the advent of their online availability, Blockbuster was simply piggybacking on the NetFlix idea, which caught on like the British Invasion... and so the Internet option for Blockbuster was overlooked for most move renters.

The Blockbuster bankruptcy is not a sure thing -- the company is doing everything it can to avoid chapter 11, including meeting with Hollywood bigwigs and making stronger efforts to compete with RedBox. But all that said, most financial experts agree that a bankruptcy filing or at least some pre-bankruptcy steps will be taken as early as the middle of September 2010. Right now Blockbuster mouthpieces are not saying "bankruptcy" outright, but what they are saying is something along the lines ofd "financial restructuring -- essentially code for bankruptcy with a plan for growth during and after. So what's next for blockbuster pre, during and post-bankruptcy? Likely rebranding efforts to compete with RedBox in a similar fashion with kiosks in familiar places like Walmart, etc. as well as an aggressive knock on Hollywood's door to secure some sort of proprietary partnership that competitors like RedBox and NetFlix won't be privy to.

They may just pull it off. Just as Tom McAvity and other knowledgeable bankruptcy attorneys will tell you, bankruptcy can be the best way to turn a financial future around, and in the case of Blockbuster, it may give them just the time they need to get some actionable marketing steps going to keep from going under.

Chrysler Bankruptcy :: Trends in Corporate Bankruptcy up or down?

If you listened to the news several weeks ago, you probably heard that General Motors had paid off all that had been loaned to them by the federal government. Unfortunately for Chrysler, they have not share the same fortunate fate... not that it's all rainbows and unicorns at GM, by any means.

According to the Wall Street Journal's August 13 article about the Chrysler bankruptcy, what Chrysler owes just to the bankruptcy attorneys are in the neighborhood of $85 million... quite a sum for Chapter 11 bankruptcy help.

With regard to the primary bankruptcy law firm handling the Chrysler case, Eric Morath of the WSJ writes, "Jones Day charged an average of $500 per hour for the work done during the first four months of this year."

But Jones Day was not the only firm working on the Chrysler chapter 11 bankruptcy -- as one can imagine, a bankruptcy of this magnitude requires droved of law teams and their respective staff members.

Morath adds, "Nortel Networks, a company about a quarter the size of Chrysler when it filed for Chapter 11 in January 2009, has paid its attorneys and advisers $76 million in fees through the first 18 months of the case, according to Am Law Daily."

So it seems that while Chrysler tries to get out of the woods with their bankruptcy, the proceedings may be more than just a minor financial blow.

So the question remains: with some larger companies trudging up the bankruptcy hill with some level of success, others have larger mountains to climb. No one can really say with any level of accuracy what the real trends in corporate bankruptcy will look like over the next 12 to 24 months... at least.