Hollywood Video

Hollywood Entertainment
Public
Industry Retail
Fate Bankruptcy
Founded 1988
Defunct 2010
Headquarters Wilsonville, Oregon
Products VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, and video game rentals and sales
Parent Movie Gallery
Subsidiaries Hollywood Entertainment, GameCrazy
Website Official website
A typical Hollywood Video store in 2007.
Hollywood Video in 2009, with attached Game Crazy location.

Hollywood Entertainment Corporation (Nasdaq: HLYW),[1] known as Hollywood Video, was a VHS, DVD, and video game rental shop company started in 1988. The chain was the largest direct competitor to Blockbuster Video until it was purchased by Movie Gallery in 2005.[2]

Hollywood Video ceased operations in May 2010, when Movie Gallery, its parent company, declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy.[3] Its last US store closed its doors on July 31, 2010, whereas the last one in Canada closed on August 8 of that year.

As of late 2013, two Hollywood Video locations remain open in the US. In Jackson, Mississippi one store reopened in half of a former Hollywood Video under the same name and logo. The other half of the store became a coin laundry under the banner Hollywood Coin Laundry. In Cedar City, Utah, a Hollywood Video accompanied with GameCrazy opened in a retail strip center both operating under the same name and logo as the former chain.

As of late 2011, the HollywoodVideo.com site has been relaunched as an online blog.

History

20th century

In 1993 Hollywood, which operated 16 stores, became a public company. In 1996 Hollywood decided to establish three regional offices, with one each in Greater Chicago, Greater Houston, and the San Francisco Bay Area.[4]

In July 1998, CEO Mark Wattles announced Hollywood had purchased Reel.com "in a deal valued at $100 million", which included $30 million in cash to Reel's stockholders; Reel.com was to continue operating independently, and still led by its CEO Julie Wainwright.[5]

21st century

Hollywood Video was the target of a hostile takeover attempt, initially announced at the end of December 2004 by competitor Blockbuster Video. In February 2005, Blockbuster announced an exchange offer of $14.50 per share ($11.50 cash and $3.00 in Blockbuster shares). In response, Hollywood Video agreed to a buyout on Monday, January 10, 2005 by Movie Gallery, a smaller competitor. Movie Gallery paid $860 million, $13.25 per share, and the assumption of $380 million in debt. Stocks closed at $13.85 on January 10 after this news. Blockbuster then dropped its purchase plans, citing anti-trust concerns. Movie Gallery completed its purchase of Hollywood Video on April 27, 2005.

Hollywood became a subsidiary of Movie Gallery and maintained its Oregon headquarters.[6]

In December 2011, the website hollywoodvideo.com was relaunched as a movie news curator blog. The site used an automated "social scoring algorithm" to link to articles on the web pertaining to movies and other entertainment media content.[7] The site also contained a blog written by a single editor (that was later expanded to multiple editors) about current movie-related news. As of April 2013, the "social scoring algorithm" part of the site was removed and replaced with the blog.[8] The website also contained an interface for searching and buying movies from Amazon.com from within the Hollywood Video site.

Headquarters

At one time, Hollywood Video was headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, in an 85,000-square-foot (7,900 m2) office building. In 1996 Hollywood moved its employees out of the building two years into its five-year lease. In 1996 Poorman-Douglas Corp agreed to occupy all of the space in the Beaverton building, relieving Hollywood of extra rent payments.[9]

After Hollywood decided to leave Beaverton, it signed a long-term lease for a 166,000 square feet (15,400 m2) building in Wilsonville, Oregon. Robert Goldfield of the Portland Business Journal said that Hollywood Video "barely" took occupancy of the structure; then Mark Wattles, the chief executive, decided to move the offices and the Hollywood Video headquarters to the former Smith's Home Furnishings headquarters in Wilsonville.[9] In 1996 170 full-time employees worked from the headquarters.[4] The 173,000 square feet (16,100 m2) Smith's headquarters facility was no longer occupied by October 1998; as of that month the space was for lease. Hollywood's Nasdaq trading became no longer active.[1]

In 1997, when Hollywood was considering a new headquarters location, the City of Wilsonville had signage codes that did not allow companies to use neon. The codes made Hollywood consider using other locations. Members of the City of Wilsonville's development review boards said that neon was out of character for the Wilsonville Business Park, Hollywood Video's prospective location.[10]

In January 1999 Trammell Crow Co. bought the 77 acres (31 ha) Thrifty Payless Inc. headquarters for $25.5 million and then broke the compound into sections, selling pieces of it for a total of $22 million; Trammell Crow retained control of the $8 million, 120,000-square-foot (11,000 m2) headquarters building. Hollywood leased the headquarters building,[11] and Hollywood remained headquartered in Wilsonville.[12]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Miller, Brian K. "Listed industrial space in area is now plentiful." Portland Business Journal. Friday October 16, 1998 by Mark Wattles. Retrieved on September 26, 2010.
  2. ↑ New York Times
  3. ↑ Spector, Mike; Lattman, Peter (May 3, 2010). "Hollywood Video Closes Doors". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2012-03-30.
  4. 1 2 Rose, Michael. "Hollywood Video expansion includes three regional offices." Portland Business Journal. Sunday June 23, 1996. Retrieved on September 26, 2010.
  5. ↑ Pelline, Jeff (July 31, 1998). "Reel.com goes Hollywood". CNET News. Archived from the original on 2000-01-21.
  6. ↑ "Movie Gallery completes Hollywood acquisition." Portland Business Journal. Thursday April 28, 2005. Retrieved on September 26, 2010.
  7. ↑ "About The New Hollywood Video". The NEW Hollywood Video. Retrieved 2015-12-28.
  8. ↑ "The NEW Hollywood Video - An Entertainment News Curator". 2013-04-07. Archived from the original on April 7, 2013. Retrieved 2015-12-28.
  9. 1 2 Goldfield, Robert. "Poorman-Douglas swallows up Hollywood's Beaverton space." Portland Business Journal. Sunday October 6, 1996. Retrieved on September 26, 2010.
  10. ↑ Binole, Gina. "Hollywood sign imbroglio: No neon, no headquarters." Portland Business Journal. Friday August 29, 1997. Retrieved on September 26, 2010.
  11. ↑ Miller, Brian. "There was never a dull moment in real estate." Portland Business Journal. Friday January 1, 1999. 1. Retrieved on September 26, 2010.
  12. ↑ "Contact Us." Hollywood Video. June 11, 2004. Retrieved on September 25, 2010. "Hollywood Entertainment Corporation 9275 SW Peyton Lane Wilsonville, OR 97070."

External links

Media related to Hollywood Video at Wikimedia Commons

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