this is true. the reason Blockbuster failed was not that they were too stupid or slow to change, it is that the business had been looted by its parent Viacom in precisely the same way private equity does to everything nowadays. Blockbuster had a good approach to a changing marketplace and a good lead with their huge brand name but they had absolutely no capital to make their plan work because all their cashflow was pledged to pay extremely high debt levels, all of which debt was extracted by Viacom prior to spinning Blockbuster off to flounder and die on its own, rather that providing working capital for the on-going Blockbuster business. one of the last Blockbuster CFOs has an illuminating appearance in the documentary The Last Blockbuster explaining this. the existence of this wildly profitable enterprise well-positioned for success as the market evolved was effectively ended by its ownership looting it to take all value out immediately. this has become the story of huge swathes of our economy now due to the rise of PE.