Corporate Reversals: Netflix Ditched Its Unpopular Qwikster Service

The blunder: In September, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said he was hiving off the company’s DVD business into a separate service called Qwiskster, forcing Netflix customers to open a new account if they wanted DVDs in the mail as well as online movie streaming. That was on top of a price hike announced in July. Customers started cancelling subscriptions by the thousands. I coulda been a contender: High school student Jason Castillo owns the Twitter handle @Qwikster and had high hopes of selling it for big bucks.
The reversal: Earlier this month, Hastings backed down and announced he was cancelling Qwikster. But the move allowed pundits to declare Netflix was out of step with its customers; the company’s stock is now trading around $80, compared to north of $150 before Hastings’ September announcement
(reuters)