Early on they considered and rejected the $12.6 billion video rental and sell-through category as a natural equivalent to the $12 billion bookselling industry that was dominated online by Amazon. Neither Blockbuster nor Hollywood Entertainment’s Hollywood Video chain, the two largest U.S. movie rental companies, seemed to have any interest in potentially cannibalizing their brick-and-mortar stores’ revenues to sell or rent movies online. But others, with deeper pockets—maybe even Amazon—would surely decide to sell movies online soon, and shrinking profit margins would force out all but
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