It was previously reported that the company would acquire Redbox, a video content rental service.Chicken Soup for the Soul EntertainmentFollowing the news of its bankruptcy filing in the United States, subsequent reports indicated that Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment was not planning to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization protection, but rather hoped to liquidate all businesses through Chapter 7, thus meaning that the video content rental service Redbox would become history.
The report stated that Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment initially planned to restructure its business by selling off some assets and retaining about 100 employees, but is now apparently preparing to shut down the Redbox service and lay off all 1000 or so Redbox business employees to ensure that the debt accumulation can be further slowed down.
Prior to this, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment said it would use loans to pay unpaid salaries, but it still faced unpaid fees to its partner retailers, studios, and businesses related to its streaming video service Crackle, including Walmart, Universal Pictures, and Sony Business.
Currently, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment has accumulated debts of US$9.7 million, most of which is related to the acquisition of Redbox and the difficulty in balancing the expenses of related operational business transformation.
In the past, Redbox has always been a channel for many people to rent movies and TV series discs, and its service stations are usually located in convenience stores, grocery stores and other channels. After terminating the game disc rental service in 2019, Redbox returned to focus on movie and TV series disc rentals, and followed up with the streaming video service market. However, because it missed the best development opportunities, its business began to decline and was eventually acquired by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. However, this also left Chicken Soup for the Soul with huge debts, resulting in it now having to liquidate the Redbox business to protect itself.
