This morning I sat in a conference room waiting for a meeting to start and I had to listen to CNBC for 20 minutes or so. At first I thought to myself, man it has been forever since I have watched this god awful channel. The second thing that popped into my head is how many nasty broken companies are left.

The second thought came after CNBC informed me that the company that owns Hollywood video is declaring bankruptcy yet again. Two times in three years, not bad. I think the only person able to rival that is Donald Trump himself. Renting movies from a movie store is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. My wife and I primarily rent movies through Directv (DTV) and it is amazing. Not only are the movies now coming in at 1080p, the company has unbelievable customer service.

Besides being broadcasted at 1080p, most often times than not, they are released on the same day they end up in the “movie stores.” I still believe that the day is coming where movies will be released on the big screen and through other avenues. Why not charge more for the movie on the internet when it is first released? This would kill the market for illegal pirates and help the studios get back some of that revenue lost to pirated movies.

My wife was sick a few months back and rented some “chick flick.” I passed on watching it and went into the man cave for home brewed beer and Deadwood. Half way through her movie a really nasty storm came through and interrupted the signal. It was late and she went to bed. I called them the next day to ask if they could extend the time due to the storm and they gave us a free movie.

This format is the way of the future, not Blockbuster, Netflix, etc. No one will want the physical discs as they end up taking up space and that is about it. Invest in companies that increase bandwidth, switches, hubs, satellite providers, satellite equipment manufacturers, etc. That is where the really money will be made.

The other company that I could not help but notice is Borders Group (BGP). BGP owns and operates the chain of bookstores known as Borders. In my eyes, Borders was always a second class big chain bookstore to Barnes and Noble (BKS). All during college I was raked at the bookstore and it was owned by BKS, as are many large college campus bookstores. Down at Ohio State, they have a brand new double decker Barnes and Noble just waiting to charge you $30 for a stupid shirt with a buckeye on it. Where BKS succeeded in colleges, BGP did not. Apple has always targeted college students and they will soon be swooping into BKS’s bread and butter- text books.

Apple is rumored to be in talks with text book makers to have college text books on the new iPad. This would directly compete with BKS, but also expand their emergence in the ebook market. This is a market that both BKS and AAPL are moving into, but BGP probably does not have the means to enter into the space. BGP stock currently trades in the low single digits and I find it hard to believe that anyone would give them money to compete with AAPL, AMZN, and BKS. It is a death wish.