John Antioco

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John Antioco
John F Antioco, February 2022.jpg
John Antioco, 2022
Born (1949-11-01) November 1, 1949 (age 74)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S. [1]
Education New York Institute of Technology (BS) [2]
Employer(s)Managing Member of JAMCO Interests, [3] Chairman of Brix Holdings, [4] Chairman of Red Mango [5]
Known forCEO of Blockbuster [5]
Executive roles at 7-Eleven, Circle K, and Taco Bell [5]
TitleChairman
Term2008–present [5]

John Antioco is an American businessman, known for being the former CEO of the now bankrupt Blockbuster Video who missed an opportunity to purchase Netflix before it became a multi-billion dollar streaming platform. He is now the chairman of the board of directors at Red Mango and the Managing Partner of JAMCO Interests LLC. [6]

Contents

Biography

John Antioco was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. [1] [7] His father was a milkman, whom Antioco would sometimes accompany on his morning delivery route. [7] He is a graduate of the New York Institute of Technology, where he earned a B.S. in Business Administration. [2]

Antioco is best known for declining an offer, from Reed Hastings, to purchase Netflix for $50 million in 2000, while CEO of Blockbuster. He also refused a proposal from Netflix to run Blockbuster's online presence. [8]

John Antioco was a member of the board of governors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. [9]

Career

7-Eleven

Antioco began his professional career at 7-Eleven, which he joined as a management trainee in 1970. [10] He was at the company for 20 years, in various roles. [11] [12] As Senior Vice President of Marketing in April 1989, he was responsible for bringing on advertising firm J. Walter Thompson to create a slate of television commercials that marketed 7-Eleven to new-collar workers. [11] Antioco was also Senior Vice President of Operations, which meant he was in charge of operations for every 7-Eleven store worldwide. [12] [10]

Pearle Vision, Circle-K, and Taco Bell

Antioco left 7-Eleven in 1990 to become COO at Pearle Vision. [10] [13]

In 1991, he joined the convenience store chain Circle K, where he assumed the role of president and COO. [7] Circle K had filed for bankruptcy in May 1990 and Antioco was brought in to streamline the company's operations. [14] [15] Under Antioco's leadership, the chain announced plans to close or sell about 1,550 of its least profitable locations and invest in improving the rest of its stores. [14] In March 1992, at which point Antioco had become the company's CEO, Circle K was sold for approximately $425 million to a private investor group led by management in conjunction with Investcorp. [16] [17] In 1994, as CEO Antioco took Circle K public, selling 6.5 million shares of stock on the New York Stock Exchange. [15] [18] Antioco left Circle K in 1996, shortly after overseeing a $710 million sale of the company to Tosco Corp. [19] [18]

Antioco joined Taco Bell as its new CEO in 1996. [13] During his time at Taco Bell, he oversaw changes to the company's menu, advertising, and its franchising model. [7] [20]

Blockbuster

Antioco took over as Blockbuster CEO in July 1997. [13] When he joined the company, it was struggling financially, with cash flow down 70 percent during the second quarter of the 1997 financial year. [21] [13] This was in part due to Blockbuster's expansions into areas outside the video retail market, such apparel sales and a chain of music stores called Blockbuster Music. [13] [22] [23] Antioco decoupled Blockbuster Music from its video division, putting it under separate management. [24] The music store division was sold in August 1998 by Blockbuster's parent company Viacom to Wherehouse Entertainment for $115 million. [21] [24] Early in Antioco's CEO tenure, Blockbuster also ended its relationships with Virgin Interactive, Discovery Zone, and Spelling Entertainment. [25]

In 1998, Antioco entered Blockbuster into revenue-sharing agreements with Hollywood studios, which allowed its stores to obtain many copies of new releases at a lower price than their competitors. [7] In August 1999, Antioco took Blockbuster public, selling 18 percent of its stock on the New York Stock Exchange and raising $465 million. [21] [23] On the day of the initial public offering, he rang the opening bell of the NYSE alongside actress Rene Russo. [26] At the time, Blockbuster's market share in the video rental space had recently grown to 31 percent. [25]

In 2004, Antioco oversaw the launch of a new DVD subscription service called Blockbuster Online. [27] [28] The service allowed customers to rent Blockbuster DVDs online and have them delivered by mail. [27] [29] By the end of 2006, Blockbuster Online had approximately two million subscribers. [27] In 2007, Antioco pushed to expand the service and rebranded it as Blockbuster Total Access, which in addition to offering online DVD rentals, also allowed customers to return a Blockbuster Online DVD to a brick and mortar Blockbuster store to receive one additional free rental. [29] [30]

Under Antioco, Blockbuster launched these services in part to compete with Netflix, which at the time was a growing competitor in the video retail space. [27] [28] [30] It has been widely reported that, in 2000, Netflix co-founders Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph offered to sell their company to Blockbuster for $50 million, but Antioco declined. [31] [32] [23] Hastings and Randolph have also claimed this in books and interviews. [31] [23] [33] Antioco has disputed this version of events, stating that he never had serious discussions with Hastings or Randolph about acquiring Netflix. [31] In 2007, at the Sundance Film Festival, Antioco and Hastings met to discuss the possibility of Netflix purchasing Blockbuster Online. [34] [35] Antioco preferred a full merger, and a deal between the two companies was never struck. [34] [35]

Antioco left Blockbuster in 2007 due to disagreements with Blockbuster board members, most notably billionaire investor Carl Icahn, regarding the company's strategy. [36] [37]

JAMCO and other roles

In February 2010, Antioco founded JAMCO Interests, a private equity firm that invests in retail and hospitality ventures. [38] [39] JAMCO, through its subsidiary Brix Holdings, holds an interest in chain restaurants such as Red Mango, Souper Salad, and Friendly's, which it purchased in 2020 for $2 million following the chain's bankruptcy. [40] [41] [42] [43] JAMCO is also a member of TriArtisan Partners, an investment group that owns TGI Fridays, where Antioco served as interim CEO in 2015. [44] [45] He was also CEO of P.F. Chang's for approximately one year, following the company's acquisition by TriArtisan Partners. [46] Antioco is currently chairman of Red Mango, a position he has held since 2008. [40] [5]

In August 2011, Antioco was appointed chairman of the board at Rave Cinemas. [12] [47] He was chairman when Rave sold 32 of its theaters to Cinemark in November 2012 for approximately $240 million. [48] [49]

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