The history of the famous red kiosks is a story of innovative retail concepts constantly battling the digital revolution. Understanding the complex corporate timeline reveals the various entities that, at one point or another, could answer the question, who owns Redbox. From its humble beginnings as a side project within a fast-food empire to its eventual acquisition by a streaming service, the company’s ownership changed hands repeatedly as it fought to maintain relevance in a rapidly changing media landscape. This detailed timeline provides the complete story of the ownership shifts, explaining the complicated journey of the company.
Table of Contents
The McDonald’s Experiment and the True Founder of Redbox
The earliest corporate history defining who owns Redbox begins in 2002, surprisingly under the umbrella of McDonald’s Ventures, LLC. The visionary behind the concept was executive Gregg Kaplan, who recognized an opportunity in automating media rentals. While McDonald’s provided the initial funding and retail testing space, Kaplan is widely regarded as the effective Founder of Redbox. The very first kiosks, installed in Washington D.C., proved that customers appreciated the convenience and low cost. This early success validated the rental kiosk model as a viable alternative to traditional video stores.
Gregg Kaplan’s Vision: Defining Who Started Redbox
Gregg Kaplan and his team quickly established the core business model: high volume, low price. The concept of placing fully automated rental machines outside high-traffic retail locations like grocery stores and pharmacies completely redefined convenience. This pivot is critical to understanding who started Redbox as a successful, independent business rather than just a corporate experiment. By 2003, McDonald’s sought to divest non-core assets, and Redbox, though promising, was sold off to Coinstar, Inc. This move set the stage for Coinstar to become the primary force answering the question of who owns Redbox for the next decade.
The Coinstar Era: The First Answer to Who Bought Redbox
Coinstar, best known for its coin-counting machines, initially acquired a controlling stake in Redbox in 2005 and completed its full acquisition by 2009. This move clearly identifies Coinstar as the first major company who bought Redbox and aggressively scaled the operation nationwide. The synergies were immediate: both companies specialized in high-tech vending solutions placed in retail locations, allowing Redbox to rapidly expand its footprint to tens of thousands of locations. During this period, the red kiosks cemented their place as a cultural icon and a dominant force in the physical media rental industry.
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The Peak of Physical Media: Coinstar’s Market Dominance
Under Coinstar’s management, Redbox reached its peak, demonstrating unprecedented profitability and market saturation. The company’s efficiency and low overhead allowed it to undercut competitors. This strength complicated the issue of who owns Redbox for competitors like Blockbuster and Netflix (in its DVD-by-mail era). Coinstar eventually changed its corporate name to Outerwall, reflecting its broader scope beyond coin-counting to include various automated retail technologies. The sheer ubiquity of the kiosks during the early 2010s proved the brilliance of the high-volume, low-cost rental strategy pioneered by the Founder of Redbox.
Private Equity Takes Over: The Apollo Global Management Phase
In 2016, the corporate structure changed again. Outerwall, which included Redbox, was acquired by private equity firm Apollo Global Management in a $1.6 billion deal. This transaction marked a pivotal moment in the discussion of who owns Redbox and foreshadowed the difficult transition ahead. Private equity ownership often signals a shift toward either streamlining for profit or preparing a company for a major change, such as going public. This new ownership group immediately began exploring strategies to diversify the business beyond physical disc rentals in preparation for the digital future.
The Genesis of Redbox Entertainment and the Streaming Pivot
Under Apollo’s ownership, the company aggressively launched Redbox Entertainment. This new subsidiary was designed to produce and acquire original content to populate its emerging digital and ad-supported streaming platforms. The move was a direct response to the market dominance of Netflix and Hulu, shifting the focus away from physical rentals toward media consumption across various formats. By 2021, the company went public via a SPAC merger, temporarily providing a clear, publicly traded answer to who owns Redbox. This strategic maneuver sought to leverage the strong brand name in the streaming wars.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Determining Who Did Redbox Sell To in the End
The final, definitive answer to who owns Redbox came in 2022 when Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment (CSSE) acquired the company. This acquisition, which determined who did Redbox sell to, aimed to combine the recognizable physical kiosk network and customer base with CSSE’s vast library of content and streaming platforms, including Crackle. The CEO of Redbox at the time believed this combination offered a sustainable model. However, the move ultimately saddled the parent company with immense debt, setting the stage for its eventual collapse less than two years later.
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Final Liquidation and the Legacy of the Kiosk Model
Despite the efforts of the final CEO of Redbox, the debt proved insurmountable. In July 2024, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, leading to the immediate and permanent closure of all Redbox kiosks and digital operations. This sad chapter concludes the long corporate saga that began with the Founder of Redbox. The legacy is one of successful innovations in retail that could not fully adapt to the speed of digital transformation. Though no single entity can now technically answer the question of who owns Redbox, the red kiosks will remain a potent symbol of the DVD era.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Who owned Redbox before Chicken Soup for the Soul?
Before 2022, Redbox was owned by Outerwall (Coinstar), followed by the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, who briefly took it public.
What happened to all the Redbox kiosks?
All physical kiosks were permanently shut down in July 2024 following the Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing of parent company CSSE.
Who owns Redbox now that the company has closed?
Currently, no one owns Redbox; the parent company filed for bankruptcy, and all brand assets are being liquidated.
