Gizmodo's
list
of potentially
doomed companies of 2011, which is determined by 24/7 Wall
St. analysts' figures, has grown a little longer as of late. Three
new additions include companies that many people have regularly
attended for years: Blockbuster, T-Mobile and RadioShack.
Movie
rental store Blockbuster has been around since October 1985 and had
over 9,000 stores in 25 countries worldwide, but that hasn't stopped
new entertainment companies like Netflix from moving in and changing
the way people watch movies, thus destroying Blockbuster's
traditional movie rental model.
Blockbuster's
balance sheet hasn't been looking good, either. According to
24/7 Wall St. Analyst Douglas A. McIntyre, Blockbuster lost $65
million last quarter and is now looking to file Chapter 11 in hopes
of shedding their debt. Currently, there are 6,000 stores remaining
after their financial troubles hit, but the good news, according to
Gizmodo,
is that a Netflix/Redbox hybrid could exist in the future, keeping
some mail service and supermarket kiosks around.
T-Mobile
is in a similar situation as Blockbuster when it comes to
competition-related problems. T-Mobile's possible demise in 2011 will
be due to a lack of 4G offering, which will crush them because
many other
carriers will have 4G, and the fact that they have a smaller
customer base than several other carriers.
At
one point, there were rumors of a T-Mobile/Sprint merger, which would
save T-Mobile's parent company Deutsche Telekom and make them as
competitive as Verizon or AT&T.
RadioShack is
another company aiming toward its potential doomsday in 2011, but
their demise is nothing new or surprising. In 2006, RoadioShack
closed approximately 500 locations because they made less than
$350,000 in revenue annually. That same year, 400-450 corporate
layoffs went into effect and the company received widespread public
criticism for firing these employees by e-mail.
More
recently, in March of this year to be exact, there were reports of
Best Buy looking into merging with RadioShack, but nothing more has
come of this since then. According to Anthony Chukumba, analyst for
BB&T Capital Markets, investors will likely be interested
in
RadioShack because
their balance sheet is strong. In March, the company had "$908
million in cash outweighing its $669 million in debt."
The
list of familiar companies expected to go out of business due to
competition and debt seems to increase more and more, and it makes
one wonder if anything is going to look up in 2011. But it looks as
if RadioShack, Blockbuster and T-Mobile all have alternative options
to seek out before the end.
