NEW UPROAR AT BLOCKBUSTER

Blockbuster today (Wednesday) urged shareholders to reject dissident shareholder Gregory Meyer’s bid to win a seat on the company’s board of directors. Meyer’s candidacy was lifted Tuesday when a proxy advisory group, RiskMetrics gave him its endorsement, saying that he had “a deep understanding of the home entertainment retail market” while the current board members had failed to halt the plunge in Blockbuster’s value. “Based on its sustained underperformance, we believe the dissident has made a reasonable case for change on the board,” RiskMetrics said. But in its statement today, the company fought back. “Blockbuster strongly encourages its stockholders to support the Company by voting the WHITE proxy card and discarding any Gold proxy card provided by Gregory Meyer. Even if a vote on a Gold proxy card has previously been cast, it is not too late to change that vote by voting a WHITE proxy card as only the latest dated proxy card will be counted.” As early as 2005 Meyer had warned the board about the threat of rental kiosks and had urged it to develop a kiosk business of its own. (He himself had operated a kiosk business that he sold to Coinstar, which is now the sole owner of Redbox.)