NCR Corp. has announced its acquisition of Campbell, Calif.-based DVDPlay, which operates approximately 1,300 DVD-rental kiosks in the United States and Canada. In a news release, NCR says it will convert the DVDPlay kiosks to add to its Blockbuster Express-branded line of kiosks and is revising its installation forecasts from 2,500 to 3,800 by the end of 2009. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Alex Camara, vice president and general manager of NCR Entertainment, says DVDPlay's presence in California, Colorado and Illinois will allow NCR to extend its DVD-rental reach to new markets, bolstering its efforts to compete with redbox.
Our acquisition of DVDPlay accelerates NCR's growth in the DVD-rental business as we expand our operations, technology leadership and consumer experience in key markets with premium retail partners. Over the past six months, we've seen tremendous enthusiasm from consumers and retail partners for our DVD-rental kiosks. We've been able to deploy quickly and maintain high levels of availability. This further investment will help us bring our kiosks to even more consumers in even more locations around the United States, especially in major markets in California and other parts of the western U.S.
Coinstar Inc., whose redbox brand is NCR's primary competition in the DVD-rental kiosk market, today announced it has exceeded its forecast for 20,000 redbox kiosks installed by the end of the year.
