The pivotal decision that led to the end of the hi-def DVD format war was the result of an auction between rivals Sony and Toshiba in which both formats sought to buy the exclusive partnership of Warner Home Video- and Sony won by paying around $400 million.
That’s according to a piece published earlier this week in the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper; while sources supplied the paper with the $400 million figure, neither Sony nor Warners’ would confirm it.
In what a Toshiba executive described as the last straw, Warners’ took Blu-ray’s side in early January. After retailers Best Buy, Netflix and Wal*Mart followed its lead, Toshiba threw in the towel earlier this week.
The Globe and Mail also reported that Sony was determined to win the war because it was “haunted by Betamax,” the format it backed that lost out to rival VHS in the late 1980s. Sony won by making partnerships all over the technology and movie industries, years in advance, and by using both its movie studio holdings and its gaming profile to gain an advantage.
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