Movie rental giant Netflix (NFLX) made some news of note yesterday. First, as my colleague Jon Ogg noted, the stock dropped on concerns that Blockbuster is going to introduce a kiosk plan.

The other major news is that the company's Chief Financial Officer Barry McCarthy is going to step down effective Friday. McCarthy made the decision in order to pursue "broader executive opportunities" outside the company. Taking over for McCarthy is David Wells, who was the vice president of financial planning and analysis. Wells was responsible for strategic planning, forecasting, and financial analysis.

A nice casual Saturday afternoon in Naples, Florida. My kids are on spring break and we decided to leave the cold of Minnesota (although it was 61 degrees in Minneapolis yesterday). In beautiful Naples, it was 80 degrees, but with the wind chill -- 79. My son and I went to the local Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE:BBI) store to rent some movies for the week, and there it was the dirtiest of tricks.

As we were paying for the movies at the check-out counter, I noticed a Dell laptop computer about three feet to the left of the cash register. The laptop was open and properly set on the Blockbuster home page. I wanted to see if they carried an obscure movie that I hadn't seen in a while when what struck me was an "oh my God" expression. In the left-hand margin where you list your favorite websites, this Blockbuster store had three "favorites" affixed-in; Blockbuster's home page, Blockbuster's sign-up for the online, mail at home service, and ... the Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) membership cancellation page!

I couldn't believe it! The laptop was configured in a way that the customer has no ability to visit any other websites, just these three. I clicked on the Netflix cancellation tab and sure enough, right to the cancel the membership page. I asked the manager if he was doing this alone in his store. He said, "No, all the stores have this laptop with the same three tabs. Its our way of marketing our online service." I asked him if he had heard any customer objections to such dastardly tactics? He got a little red-faced and asked me if I worked for Netflix. I said no, but I thought Netflix was kicking Blockbuster's butt in the online business and had the eventual better business model.

With the pending departure of Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE:BBI) Chief Executive John Antioco, the question isn't if the video rental chain gets bought out but when and at what price.

Private equity firms would love Blockbuster. Cash flow from operations was $329.4 million last year compared with a $70.5 million deficit in 2005 thanks to the surging popularity of its Blockbuster Total Access, which allows customers to return DVDs via mail like Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) or at a store.

Video rental isn't dead yet. Buying DVDs of all of the movies you want to watch doesn't make sense and you can't always find the movies you want from video-on-demand services from cable companies. Carl Icahn told me a few years ago that he was a devoted Blockbuster customer when I interviewed him for Bloomberg News in the middle of his proxy fight for the company. Obviously, he isn't alone.

During the fight, Icahn justifiably argued that Antioco was overpaid. A few weeks ago, the company said its board and Antioco were having a dispute over his 2006 bonus. You didn't have to much of a psychic to see that his time at Blockbuster was coming to an end.

Still, Antioco is getting a sweet deal even though it was less than he would have gotten under the terms of his existing contract. He's walking away with a $24.7 million package, plus 5 million stock options that vest by Dec. 31 and can be exercised for the following 30 months, according to Reuters.

Blockbuster shares have more than doubled over the past year, which isn't bad for a company that many people including yours truly had given up for dead. Antioco deserves credit for keeping the faith though Blockbuster's future is still uncertain.

Still, it's amazing he stayed on the job as long as he did.

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