It will go down as one of the biggest missed opportunities in the boardroom: Blockbuster deciding not to buy Netflix. But that’s what could have happened multiple times throughout the early 2000s when Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings courted a deal with Blockbuster-chief John Antioco to purchase the then DVD-by-mail rental company for $50 million (the company now has a market cap of $19.7 billion). In 2005, Variety first reported that while Antioco was respected as a tough negotiator and strong manager, he lacked the vision to see where the homevideo industry was going and the changing shifts in the business under his feet.

The evening before the meeting, Randolph, Hastings, and McCarthy were in rural California at Netflix's first-ever corporate retreat when McCarthy got word that Blockbuster wanted to meet with them. At the time, Netflix was in trouble. The dot-com crash had made its once-rosy future look grim. The idea of a DVD-by-mail rental service, which was all that was possible in that era of slower download speeds, was catching on, but not quickly enough for the company to be anywhere near profitable. Two years earlier and in headier economic times, Hastings and Randolph had turned down the opportunity to be acquired by Amazon. Now acquisition by Blockbuster seemed like the perfect solution and the perfect lifeline to keep Netflix afloat. And if you want to buy Netflix Premium Membership Account, visit z2u.com, a professional online in-game currency store.

Now Netflix —  just short of being worth the same as CBS last year — soared past the television network owner with a $32.9 billion market valuation. Netflix also reached the 50 million mark in subscribers of its paid service and became available in 40 countries, CNN Money reported last year. "Management and vision are two separate things. [Netflix was] losing money," a former Blockbuster exec told Variety back in 2013, explaining Antioco's decision.

Ultimately, however, Netflix obviously got the last laugh — something Randolph says they resolved to do after their unsuccessful bid. “‘Blockbuster doesn’t want us,’ I said,” he writes. “‘So it’s obvious what we have to do now.’ I smiled. Couldn’t help it. ‘It looks like now we’re going to have to kick their ass.'”