娱乐英语新闻:U.S. movie-rental giant Blockbuster files for bankruptcy protection

HOUSTON, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. movie-rental giant Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday in its last attempt to slash its nearly one billion U.S. dollars debt.

The Dallas, Texas-based chain of DVD, Blue-ray, and video game rental stores said in a news release that it had reached an agreement with senior bondholders on a recapitalization plan.

Blockbuster plans to slash debt to about 100 million or less by swapping debt for equity in a re-organized Blockbuster with bondholders that hold about 80 percent of the company's senior secured debt.

Blockbuster's U.S. operations, including 3,000 company- operated stores, about 400 franchise stores, its DVD by-mail business, rental kiosks and digital businesses, will remain open, the company said.

As of January 2010, there were over 6,500 Blockbuster stores in the U.S. and 17 countries worldwide. Because of competition from other concepts in video renting like Netflix and Redbox, Blockbuster suffered significant revenue losses.