Redbox Buys Rival NCR Corp.’s Kiosks for $100M

Redbox snaps up NCR kiosks on same day parent company Coinstar posts strong 4Q earnings and announces Verizon deal. The stock surges

Redbox is on a roll, and busy.

On Monday its parent company Coinstar posted rosy fourth-quarter earnings with profits more than doubled, aided greatly by the growth of its DVD rental kiosk chain. 

At the same time, Coinstar said Redbox would pay $100 million to buy more than 10,000 kiosks from rival NCR Corp.

Also read: Verizon, Redbox Plan New Streaming Venture

And just hours earlier, the company announced a new partnership with Verizon Communications to provide nationwide digital download services. 

CEO Paul Davis called the streaming deal "a top priority" and said that he hoped the service would be available by November.

All of that drove a surge in Coinstar stock. Shares closed up 1.8% at $50.56 on Monday, then rose another 13 percent in after-hours trading.

The NCR kiosk deal is subject to regulatory approval, but Redbox hopes to close it in the third quarter, at which time it will enter into a services agreement with NCR.

Most of the NCR kiosks are currently branded as Blockbuster Video, which was purchased by Dish Networks last year. NCR owned the kiosks. 

In the earnings report, Coinstar said it had turned a quarterly profit of $31.5 million, or $1 a share. That was up from $11.7 million, or 35 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Revenue was up 33 percent to $520.5 million.

Revenue from Redbox, the company's biggest top-line contributor, rose 40% to $445.6 million.

Coinstar, known for its namesake coin-counting machines prior to Redbox, believes the good times are going to keep rolling, too.

The company projected 2012 earnings of $3.80 to $4.30 a share on revenue between $2.08 billion and $2.25 billions. Analysts from Thomson Reuters predict annual earnings of $3,86 a share on revenue of $2.17 billion. 

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