<div id="subtitle">Blockbuster shares sink on poor holiday sales, sign that turnaround efforts have hit a snag</div><div><p>Shares of Blockbuster took a pounding on Thursday after the company said its holiday season sales fell well below expectations, a sign that its turnaround efforts might have hit a snag.</p><p>Late Wednesday, CEO Jim Keyes said the company attempted to beef up sales in the fourth quarter by investing in ads and stocking up on inventory.</p><p>"In spite of these efforts, our performance during the holidays was well below expectations," he said.</p><p>About 30 percent of the year's earnings typically come in December.</p><p>Shares of Blockbuster fell 20 cents, or 27 percent, to 53 cents.</p><p>Blockbuster said it expects to post a net loss of $183 million to $193 million in 2009, excluding asset writedowns.</p><p>It is forecasting 2009 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $195 million to $205 million. That's down substantially from the company's prior estimate of $270 million to $290 million.</p><p>Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Tony Wible downgraded Blockbuster on Thursday to "Neutral" from "Buy." He said that the company seems to be losing more market share than expected, despite its efforts to restructure.</p><p>Blockbuster Inc., once the movie rental king, has suffered as people flocked to DVD rentals by mail through Netflix Inc. and get their movies from RedBox kiosks, majority owned by Coinstar Inc. It has closed branches, launched a movies-by-mail service and partnered with NCR Corp. for rental kiosks called Blockbuster Express.</p><p>But Wednesday's announcement shows that Blockbuster's attempts to improve have flagged.</p><p>Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter believes that Netflix and Redbox are capturing market share from Blockbuster "at an accelerated rate."</p><p>He lowered his price target to 75 cents from $1.50 for the company.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=67439831&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

Copyright 2010  <a href="http://www.ap.org">AP News</a></div></div>