Monster Island (actually a peninsula)*: SK Telecom to buy Blockbuster?

Sunday, March 27, 2011

SK Telecom to buy Blockbuster?

Perhaps SK Telecom execs should read my blog: It seems they are surprise bidders in the auction to sell off the severely/fatally/very badly hobbled Blockbuster video rental company.

This is either a shrewd move where SK Telecom plans something really innovative with Blockbuster's resources, or it's a case (à la Korea Development Bank trying to buy Lehman Brothers) where a decidedly unsavvy group in South Korea does not understand how toxic a bargain-basement asset really is.

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3 comments:

EdwardTuesday, March 29, 2011 4:41:00 AM
Just say no SK.
ReplyDelete
EdwardTuesday, March 29, 2011 4:50:00 AM
Blockbuster is a dog (that won't hunt). Why didn't SK buy Sprint when it was struggling and on the block?

Too many Korean M&A brain farts... system overload!
ReplyDelete
kushiboMonday, November 14, 2011 5:26:00 PM
Funny how Netflix's missteps have made Blockbuster look appealing again.
ReplyDelete

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九十五大怪獣란? 쿠시보의 몬스터 아일랜드란?

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun...
Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans" ("foreigners" in Korea be they kyopo or non-kyopo), Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County, and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

* Monster Island (actually a peninsula)

The name of this blog comes from a line in "Lisa on Ice," a beloved episode of The Simpsons, perhaps my all-time favorite television show (even though for several seasons there, it really did suck). Lisa is imagining being sworn in as president, but at the last minute, it is discovered that she failed P.E. (physical education) and she is thus "sentenced to a lifetime of horror" on Monster Island. "Don't worry," the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court confides in her, "It's just a name."

Fast forward to Lisa and other prisoners running in panic through a tropical jungle, chased by Godzilla-like creatures, including a monster turtle and a monster firefly.

"He said it was just a name!" Lisa screams to the man next to her. While he, too, runs for his life, the unidentified man calmly says, "What he meant is that Monster Island is actually a peninsula."

Anyway, I thought in some ways that punchline summed up modern-day Korea in a nutshell. For many people—foreigners and Koreans—the ups and downs and everyday travails of the Republic of Korea make it as precarious as a Monster Island would be (and with the DMZ being the only land border, it really is like an island). But it actually is a peninsula. Okay, it made sense in my head.

So as you can see, despite the hits I get from people looking for Japanese tentacle porn, it has nothing to do with anything salacious as that.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

SK Telecom to buy Blockbuster?

3 comments:

Just so we're clear, this is a Korea blog. A serious news blog on Korea.

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