In 2000, Netflix ’s founders offered to sell their company to Blockbuster for $50 million , with Netflix managing the video giant’s online business. Blockbuster said no. It turned out to be one of the biggest missed opportunities in business.

Back then, Netflix mailed DVDs to subscribers and wasn’t yet turning a profit. Blockbuster’s stores, meanwhile, were everywhere.

Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma , held up Netflix as an example of disruptive innovation. In a 2015 Harvard Business Review piece, he noted its early DVD service appealed only to niche groups. Those included “ movie buffs who didn’t care about new releases .”

Co-founder Marc Randolph looked back on the rejection on Twitter, now X, in April 2023.

Blockbuster’s executives “ laughed us out of the room ,” he wrote.

“Today, the company they could have bought for $50 million has a market cap north of $150 billion.…