BLOCKBUSTER SHAREHOLDERS MAY SUE COMPANY

Their shares may already be next to worthless, down to just eight cents apiece at midday today (Tuesday), about a tenth of what they were worth only a year ago, but a group of Blockbuster shareholders said on Monday that it plans to take legal action if the company goes ahead with widely reported plans to file a “prepackaged” bankruptcy in about two weeks. The group, which has established a website called blockbustershareholders.com, claims to represent 26.74 percent of all voting shares and insists that it has stuck with the company while other shareholders have bailed out because it believes that Blockbuster has the resources to compete effectively against its rivals. On Monday the leader of the shareholders group, Niko Celentano, fired off a letter to Blockbuster chief Jim Keyes, complaining that “the shareholders have been left in the dark” about the company’s negotiations with lenders. He concluded: “With the news out now that Blockbuster is looking to file a bankruptcy, you have left us no choice but to prepare our legal representation should this occur.” Reporting on Celentano’s letter, Robert Wilonsky in the Dallas Observer, commented that with Blockbuster’s shares currently worth pennies, “owning Blockbuster stock is like not owning Blockbuster stock at this point.”