Free Republic

After facing down Blockbuster and Wal-Mart, the online DVD-rental company may be an acquisition target -- but it won't go for cheap It's the oldest plot in the movies: Upstart takes on the champ, wins a few rounds, gets his nose bloodied, then gets back up and wins the fight. Rocky X? Not this time. It's the story of online DVD-rental pioneer Netflix (NFLX ), whose stock is still flirting with a 52-week high set last month as its competition withers. Speculation is building that some rival will decide that, if it can't beat Netflix, it needs to buy the...

It's quite an epic, watching Blockbuster die. The nation's No. 1 video chain hopes to prolong its life with a hostile bid for the No. 2 video-store chain, Hollywood Entertainment. But make no mistake - it's dying. The whole video- store industry is dying, too. Meanwhile some high-rolling financiers are picking over the corpses. Renegade capitalist Carl Icahn has emerged as the largest investor in both Texas-based Blockbuster and Oregon- based Hollywood. Icahn is trying to put the chains together in a $1 billion deal. He'll most likely try to turn a fast buck with synergies, economies of scale, cost-...