| General info : | | The Columbia House Company was the largest direct marketer of DVDs and other media in the world.
The company was listed as copyright holder for distribution brands such as "Columbia House 8 mm Video Club", "Columbia House Laserdisc Club", "Columbia House Video" during the 1990s.
The Columbia House brand was also an umbrella brand for the music clubs, such as (Club Musica Latina) introduced in the early 1970s by Columbia Records (a division of CBS, Inc.), and had a significant market presence in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.
Headquartered in New York City, The Columbia House Company was the world’s largest direct marketer of music, videos and DVD home entertainment product. With approximately 8 million offline and online club members in the United States and Canada in 2005, the company provided direct-to-consumer marketing of over 8,700 DVD titles and 8,000 music titles through its entertainment clubs. The company’s Website, www.columbiahouse.com, is one of the premier e-commerce brands and consistently ranks among the Web’s top 25 shopping destinations.
Since its inception in 1955, Columbia House Company has a proven record of excellence in database marketing, market segmentation, credit screening and niche market merchandising.
In 2005 BMG Direct, one of the world’s largest direct-to-customer distributors of music, closed the previously announced acquisition with The Blackstone Group , a private investment and advisory firm, of The Columbia House Company, the largest direct marketer of DVDs. BMG Direct has acquired 100 percent of The Columbia House Company.
In 2008, the company (as well as book club operator Bookspan) was acquired by private investment group Najafi Companies, and its name was changed to Direct Brands, Inc.
Although Direct Brands, Inc. shut down music mail-order operations in mid-2009, it continued to use the Columbia House brand to market videos in the U.S. and Canada, selling DVDs and Blu-rays via the controversial practice of negative option billing. DB Media's Canadian assets ceased operating on December 10, 2010, and all staff were dismissed, while U.S. operations continued as usual.
In December 2012, the company was sold to Pride Tree Holdings, Inc.
In 2013, the company changed its name to Filmed Entertainment, Inc. The sale of the DVD division at bankruptcy auction was announced August 10, 2015. | |
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| Source : | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_House (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_House) | |
| Source : | | https://web.archive.org/web/20080625090128/http://www.insd.uscourts.gov/opinions/BL2240O1.PDF (web.archive.org/web/20080625090128/http://www.insd.uscourts.gov/opinions/BL2240O1.PDF) | |
| Source : | | https://www.blackstone.com/news/press/bmg-direct-acquires-the-columbia-house-company/ (www.blackstone.com/news/press/bmg-direct-acquires-the-columbia-house-company/) | |
| Websites | | www.columbiahouse.com (www.columbiahouse.com) | |
| Relations : | | Merged into : Filmed Entertainment Inc.2013 | |
| Relations : | | Merged into : Pride Tree Holdings, Inc.2012 | |
| Relations : | | Renamed to : Direct Brands, Inc.2008 | |
| Copied Wikipedia parts under license : | | Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) | |
| Name | The Columbia House Company | The Columbia House Co. | |
| Relations : | | Uses the business name : Columbia House 8 mm Video Club | |
| Relations : | | Uses the business name : Columbia House Laserdisc Club | |
| Relations : | | Uses the business name : Columbia House Video | |