Who owns the Blockbuster Video Franchise?

For the most part, the shareholders own Blockbuster Video, or BBI.

The majority share holder as of at least 2008 was Carl Icahn, with about 9 million shares. In 2005 he decided to earn a seat on the board, as well as with two others, at Blockbuster vVideo. At one point held $134,000,000, at the least, in assets of the company and consisted of under 2% of his portfolio.

Carl Icahn is a billionaire investor and also at one point owned at least 10% of Hollywood Video's shares, a competitor of Blockbuster Video. After joining the board at BBI, he argued for selling off the company and cash in, which did not happen. Later, he fought to buy the Hollywood Video rental chain in hopes of merging the two companies and destroying the competition. The bid fell through and Hollywood Video was later bought by another company. Late last year, Icahn was eagerly attempting to buy troubled retailer Circut City, which within 6 months later went bankrupt and liquidated. Hoping Blockbuster an Circut City would be able to merge together as a retail/rental business, gaining profits from selling higher end electronics with their higher definition rentals.