Netflix to Split Movies-by-Mail Business Into Separate Company

Plain-language explanation of the company’s intentions from CEO Reed Hastings:

For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn’t make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us) because they are afraid to hurt their initial business. Eventually these companies realize their error of not focusing enough on the new thing, and then the company fights desperately and hopelessly to recover. Companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly.

Makes sense to me. Don’t understand the new movies-by-mail company’s name, though. Qwikster? Why not the obvious: Mailflix?

★ Monday, 19 September 2011