Netflix, as the entire internet knows, raised prices to much more wailing and gnashing of teeth, proving it was literally the worst thing to ever happen to white people. Well, Reed Hastings is so, so, sorry. So he decided to prove his company has learned absolutely nothing by dropping two huge bombs in your email at two in the morning.
The first? Our jokes about the DVD side going out of business weren’t unfounded. The red envelope will now come from “Qwikster.” OK, the name is stupid. But the service is absolutely the same. Also, buried in the middle of the paragraph announcing this was a casual mention: “Oh, yeah, by the way, we’re renting video games now.”
What does this mean? That Netflix is getting ready for the DVD-mailing side of the business to start not making money. Anybody who knows their business tactics knows renaming a division and splitting it off in all but financials is getting set up to be dumped. It probably won’t be tomorrow, but expect Qwikster to be cut loose entirely from Netflix, and then toast, sooner than you think.