ANOTHER CHAPTER FOR DVD EXPRESS
Copyright 2002 www.videobusiness.com

[ June 14th 2002 ]

E-tailer DVD Express has rebranded itself as DVD.com as part of its emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This is the third identity for the company, which started in the dot-com heyday as Express.com before narrowing its sales focus to DVDs. DVD Express merged with Maximum Holdings, the publisher of GameFan magazine, in 1999.

In March 2001, the merged company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and its assets were sold to Express Media Group, which counts Maximum founder David Bergstein and DVD Express founder Michael Dubelko among its investors. Although DVD.com has become the default Web site, EMG still has the rights to the DVDExpress.com domain name. Current inventory includes 6,500 DVD movie titles and 2,500 videogame titles. Videogame publisher Eidos is also an investor in the e-tailer.

A pop-up box on the DVD.com site informs customers of these changes and assures them that their user name and password will still work. On its Web site, the company says it has tallied more than $150 million in sales during the past two years. The company's headquarters and distribution facilities remain in Culver City, Calif. Representatives from DVD.com did not return calls seeking comment.