Netflix Killing Qwikster but Keeping Price Increase
Qwikster is disappearing as quickly as it arrived -- but Netflix's new prices are here to stay.
Netflix (NFLX) says it is abandoning its widely panned decision -- announced just a month ago -- to separate its DVD-by-mail and Internet streaming services.
Subscribers howled at the move, saying they didn't want to manage two accounts. Netflix now says subscribers will be able to use both services under one account and one password.
But the company is standing by its $6-a-month price jump for DVD subscribers, announced back in July and also greeted with subscriber outrage.
CEO Reed Hastings called the July price change "necessary" in a blog post Monday morning announcing the Qwikster reversal.
After an early jump, Netflix stock fell and by late afternoon shares were down almost 7% at $109.07. Netflix's shares had climbed almost to $300 before the mid-July pricing announcement.
Hastings says in the blog post "it is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs."
In mid-September, Netflix warned that it was lowering its customer estimates by 1 million for the third quarter of 2011.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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