Monday, October 10, 2011

Netflix Aborts Qwikster Spinoff

It isn't hard to guess why Netflix CEO Reed Hastings fell in love with the idea of spinning off his DVD business from his streaming video business. No doubt he was smitten with dollar signs when he crawled into bed with his management consultants.

But after the huge customer backlash his announcement three weeks ago triggered, it was the PR consultants who likely counselled adminstration of the morning after pill.

You don't see a walk of shame on a corporate decision very often, and in Netflix's case they are sticking with the price increase they put in this July, but are promising they will keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs with one website, one account, one password, and no Qwikster.

The damage to the customer relationship may already have been done. I, for one, have spent a couple of good nights with Redbox.

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