bidding war
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Netflix nabs a million UK subscribers, promises to 'invest heavily' to outbid Sky for movie rights
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has threatened a bidding war with UK Broadcaster BSkyB for premium movie rights, and he could have the war chest to back it up -- the company also hit the million subscriber mark in the UK only seven months after launching there. Netflix UK boasted that it even got there faster than Twitter or Facebook did globally, and chalked up the success to most British households having at least one household streaming device. Meanwhile, Hastings said the US company intends to pry premium Hollywood movie rights away from BSkyB, promising to be "really aggressive in our bidding." The streaming service will have to overcome more than money, however -- the UK's Competition Commission granted BSkyB a rights extension to protect it from the very likes of Netflix.
Activision and Nintendo were involved in Rare bidding war, former Microsoft exec recounts
A classic industry tale of "D'oh" tells of how Activision missed an opportunity to buy Blizzard on the cheap a decade before the $18 billion merger. Here's the opposite tale: In 2002, it seems Activision dodged a bullet by losing out in a bidding war to purchase Rare. Microsoft ended up being the fish that took the worm -- for $375 million -- and the rest has been ... well, let's just say that Rare hasn't lived up to the high expectations set by the studio's independent successes (despite having settled into a key role in the Microsoft Game Studios family). In an interview with Develop, Ed Fries, former Microsoft VP of game publishing, revealed that Activision was close to a deal to secure Rare, but that Microsoft ended up offering more. Fries also shared that Nintendo was involved in the bidding war, further inflating an eventually outrageous price for the developer. At the time, Nintendo owned half of Rare, so if Microsoft had bid low, the House of Mario could have easily taken control of the entire studio. "So, there's a problem: If we drive a hard bargain and put in a low price for Rare, Nintendo would have the chance to buy at that low price and probably would," Fries reasoned. "So, the price was high." Unfortunately for Fries and Microsoft, they did not heed Kenny Rodgers' sage advice: "You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away and know ... when to run."
'Asteroids' heading towards the big screen?
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal has won an all-out "bidding war" over the film rights to Atari's classic Asteroids video game. We're not entirely sure who all was involved in this "war," but the conflict couldn't possibly be prompted over the universal themes tackled by the story of the plucky little triangular spaceship and the asteroid field it inhabits. As the Reporter, um, reports: "As opposed to today's games, there is no story line or fancy world-building mythology." Michael Bay is rumored to be very interested in directing.[Via George Ruiz]
