Netlfix Site Fails Amid Customer Losses
Netflix took a double hit on Tuesday, as its Web site outage moved into a second day, and it reported the first quarterly customer losses in its history.
The online rental firm's site had been down since Monday evening due to "unanticipated problems," although the company declined to elaborate on the issue. A message on the site said the company expected the site to return by 4pm Eastern Time Tuesday.
Earlier in the day the company said it had hoped to have the site up by noon ET: later this was pushed to 2pm and subsequently to 4pm ET.
In addition, Netflix reported its quarterly results, which showed that for the first time since it started business in 1999, the service actually lost customers. As of the end of the quarter, the company reported a loss of 55,000 customers to end with 6.74 million total subscribers.
Netflix announced over the weekend that it would be dropping its prices on its two most popular plans by $1 to match the fees charged by competitor Blockbuster. Netflix is facing increasing pressure from its smaller rival, which has seen accelerated growth in recent months.
Much of this has to do with Blockbuster taking advantage of its brick-and-mortar stores, where subscribers can drop off their movies, and even rent new ones. Netflix has no physical presence and operates solely through the mail.
Netflix stock traded as low as $15.62 Tuesday morning, a 52-week low. As of mid-afternoon Tuesday the stock was trading at $16.16, down 6.43 percent for the day.
Blockbuster is expected to report its own earnings on Thursday.