Fund among Blockbuster’s biggest shareholders

Marathon has 5.1% stake in movie-rental retailer

By Danny King -- Video Business, 6/19/2008

JUNE 19 | Marathon Asset Management owns 5.1% of Blockbuster’s class-A stock, the New York-based fund manager said in a regulatory filing this week.

Marathon, which has $11.7 billion in assets, owned 6.35 million shares of the largest U.S. movie-rental chain as of June 13, the filing said. At yesterday’s closing price, the stake is worth $17.6 million.

Blockbuster shares have dropped 40% in the past year, compared with a 10% drop for the New York Stock Exchange.

Blockbuster's stock is down 11% since April 11, the last trading day before the company said it made an unsolicited bid for Circuit City, the No. 2 U.S. electronics retailer, in February.

Marathon didn’t say when it acquired the shares.

Blockbuster’s biggest shareholder is financier Carl Icahn, who owns about 16% of its class-A stock.