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Business

Redbox getting swallowed by Chicken Soup For The Soul

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Redbox
Photo: Justin Sullivan/ (Getty Images)

Great news for anybody who wants to see some sun-damaged touch screens get livened up by a little good, hearty cheer: Redbox just got itself bought by Chicken Soup For The Soul Entertainment Inc., the company behind eight million books of inspirational sub-Reader’s Digest horseshit, and also, for some reason, Crackle—your number 1 streaming home for Joe Dirt 2.

Redbox is, of course, the company that operates all those kiosks that tend to pop up like crimson plastic mushrooms around your various neighborhood supermarkets or drugstores, catering to the societal deviants who still prefer to acquire media through plastic discs instead of the Information Superhighway, despite living in a world where Netflix and its streaming ilk are hunched over, like beasts, still guzzling down the neck-meat of the classic video store. The company has reportedly been struggling in recent years, presumably because, well, its whole business model seems pegged to a transitional phase in media consumption. (Which is to say that there’s an obvious benefit to owning physical media, for sure, but very little benefit, outside being very cheap, to renting it, as opposed to simply going digital.)

Anyway: The company—which went public last year after a period of ownership by Apollo Global Management, the big spooky conglomerate that also owns AMC Theaters, Yahoo!, Sirius Satellite Radio, and a whole bunch more stuff—is being acquired by Chicken Soup Entertainment, for a reported $375 million. Which sounds like a lot, until you find out that $50 million of that is Chicken Soup stock (the financial apparatus, not the consommé base), and that the rest was $325 million in Redbox debt the company was willing to take on.

Chicken Soup has been on an acquisition streak in recent years, most notably picking Crackle up off of Sony, and buying film distribution company Screen Media. They also make pet food! It’s not clear why, exactly, they want a physical media rental company that’s been losing both revenues and employees in recent months, but hey: Is that really anything the power of positive thinking and folksy anecdotes can’t fix? (Yes, it absolutely is.)

[via Variety]

G/O Media may get a commission

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Sports

St. Luke’s identifies Teddy Balkind as student who died during Brunswick hockey game in Greenwich

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“There are no words adequate to this moment, and I know all of us will support each other as best as we can,” St. Luke’s Head of School Mark Davis wrote to the school community. Davis said Balkind died as “a result of an injury suffered” in a hockey game at Brunswick. While school was closed because of the weather Friday, Davis said it would open at noon after roads were cleared so students and staff could gather to grieve.

“While nothing can take away the pain, just being together can provide comfort and a way for us to absorb the unimaginable,” Davis wrote.

Greenwich police said the injury took place on the ice during a 5 p.m. game at Brunswick.


During the normal course of the game, “a player from the other team fell to the ice,” according to a statement from Greenwich police.

“Another player who was near the downed player was unable to stop, and collided with the player who fell,” stated police Capt. Mark Zuccerella.

The downed hockey player was rushed to Greenwich Hospital, and “died as a result of the injury,” Zuccerella said.

Brunswick Head of School Thomas Philip released a statement Friday to school alumni about the tragic incident.

“During a JV ice hockey game last night against St. Luke’s, a member of the opposing team’s neck was accidentally cut by a skate. All who witnessed the play (from both schools) apparently describe play as entirely normal and unremarkable in the game of hockey.

“The boy was immediately treated by our medical staff (the boy’s father was present throughout) and was eventually transported to Greenwich Hospital, where he was treated in the ER and then operated on.

“Tragically, he did not survive the operation,” Philip said

According to Philip, he and Davis, along with coaches from both teams, were at the hospital Thursday evening.

“I want to commend our medical, coaching and security staff for all that they did in the most terrible of circumstances to sustain the boy until the ambulance arrived,” Philip wrote in his letter.

On Friday, Davis told Hearst Connecticut Media that the community was in mourning.

“Yesterday, we lost a precious young man in a tragic accident,” he said. “Both St. Luke’s School and Brunswick School are in shock as we work to support our students and families. St. Luke’s singular focus at this moment is to care for our devastated community.”

A sophomore at St. Luke’s, Balkind attended New Canaan public schools for elementary school.

“Many of our students were friends with this student and his family,” New Canaan Superintendent Bryan Luizzi said in a statement. Luizzi said the district’s counselors were available to provide help and support to anyone who might benefit. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and the entire St. Luke’s community.

Staff writers Grace Duffield and Scott Ericson contributed to this report.

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US

High school hockey player dead from game injury

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A high school hockey player died as a result of injuries he sustained on the ice during a game in Connecticut, according to officials.

The tragic incident occurred in Greenwich Thursday evening during a private-school matchup between Brunswick School, an all-boys college prep school in Greenwich, and St. Luke’s School, a co-ed private school in New Canaan.

At one point during the game, “a player from the other team fell to the ice,” according to a statement from Greenwich police, obtained by Greenwich Time. 

“Another player who was near the downed player was unable to stop, and collided with the player who fell,” police Capt. Mark Zuccerella said.

The young hockey player was rushed to Greenwich Hospital, where he “died as a result of the injury.”

Brunswick Head of School Thomas Philip told Greenwich Time that he met with St. Luke’s School’s head, Mark Davis. Philip also said he contacted the boy’s family to offer support.

“We are devastated,” Philip said. “An unimaginable tragedy.”

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