The writer of uplifting books, TV, film and on-line video content material, which additionally owns DVD rental operator Redbox, on Friday filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety in Delaware courtroom after racking up almost $1 billion in debt.
Chicken Soup was based in 1993 by motivational audio system Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. Over the following years, the corporate expanded past publishing books and developed a spread of advertisement-supported video-on-demand companies, together with Redbox, Crackle, and Popcornflix, based on S&P Capital IQ.
The publicly traded firm, which is predicated in Cos Cob, Conn., additionally runs Redbox Free Live TV, a free ad-supported streaming service, and operates 1000’s of DVD rental kiosks.
Chicken Soup for the Soul owes cash to greater than 500 collectors, together with leisure firms similar to Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. Discovery and retailers Walgreens and Walmart. As of March, the corporate had money owed of $970 million and belongings of $414, its chapter submitting reveals. In courtroom paperwork, the corporate mentioned its lenders had been unwilling to cooperate with refinancing.
A spokesperson for Chicken Soup for the Soul declined to remark.
Chicken Soup for the Soul noticed speedy development after going public in 2017, when its traders included Ashton Kutcher, with its annual revenues hovering from lower than $10 million to greater than $294 million in 2023. The firm in 2022 purchased Redbox, a dotcom-era survivor finest identified for its self-serve kiosks exterior of pharmacies or groceries shops that permit prospects hire or promote DVDs.
At the time, Chicken Soup for the Soul touted the deal as a solution to attain customers throughout mediums and enhance income, however the merged enterprise failed to show a revenue whereas its losses piled up. The firm reported 2023 income of roughly $110 million, and in March disclosed in a regulatory submitting that it won’t have the ability to proceed as a going concern.
The firm’s inventory value, which approached $50 in 2021, had tumbled greater than 90% during the last yr and was priced at 11 cents shortly earlier than the shut of commerce on Monday.
—The Associated Press contributed to this report.
