Video Library was a publicly traded video rental shop based in San Diego, California. It had 43 corporate stores from 1979 through 1989 before they were acquired and converted into Blockbuster Video in 1989.
Video Library made its initial public stock offering in mid-1985.
Video Library was owned by Founder and President and Chief Executive Barry L. Rosenblatt, Chairman Roy Keith Black, and shareholder Pauline Sussman. As part of the acquisition deal, the three received Blockbuster stock valued at $66.4 million. At the time of the acquisition, Blockbuster Video operated 58 company-owned and franchised Blockbuster Video Superstores.
Video Library reported $11.9 million (~$27.4 million in 2023) in revenue for the third quarter of Sept. 1987.
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Barry Jay Minkow is a former American businessman, pastor, and convicted felon. While still in high school, Minkow founded ZZZZ Best, which appeared to be an immensely successful carpet-cleaning and restoration company. However, it was actually a front to attract investment for a massive Ponzi scheme. ZZZZ Best collapsed in 1987, costing investors and lenders $100 million in one of the largest investment frauds ever perpetrated by a single person, as well as one of the largest accounting frauds in history. The scheme is often used as a case study of accounting fraud.
Blockbuster is an American multimedia brand and former rental store chain. The business was founded by David Cook in 1985 as a single home video rental shop, but later became a public store chain featuring video game rentals, DVD-by-mail, streaming, video on demand, and cinema theater. The logo was designed by Lee Dean at the Rominger Agency. The company expanded internationally throughout the 1990s. At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster employed 84,300 people worldwide and operated 9,094 stores.
Bank One Corporation was an American bank founded in 1968 and at its peak the sixth-largest bank in the United States. It traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol ONE. The company merged with JPMorgan Chase & Co. on July 1, 2004, with its CEO Jamie Dimon taking the lead at the combined company. The company had its headquarters in the Bank One Plaza in the Chicago Loop in Chicago, Illinois, now the headquarters of Chase's retail banking division.
Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included Mortal Kombat, Rampage, Spy Hunter, NBA Jam, Cruis'n and NFL Blitz. Midway also acquired the rights to video games that were originally developed by WMS Industries and Atari Games, such as Defender, Joust, Robotron: 2084, Gauntlet and the Rush series.
Cypress Semiconductor was an American semiconductor design and manufacturing company. It offered NOR flash memories, F-RAM and SRAM Traveo microcontrollers, PSoCs, PMICs, capacitive touch-sensing controllers, Wireless BLE Bluetooth Low-Energy and USB connectivity solutions.
U.S. Bancorp is an American bank holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and incorporated in Delaware. It is the parent company of U.S. Bank National Association, and is the fifth largest banking institution in the United States. The company provides banking, investment, mortgage, trust, and payment services products to individuals, businesses, governmental entities, and other financial institutions. As of 2019, it had 3,106 branches and 4,842 automated teller machines, primarily in the Western and Midwestern United States. In 2023 it ranked 149th on the Fortune 500, and it is considered a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board. The company also owns Elavon, a processor of credit card transactions for merchants, and Elan Financial Services, a credit card issuer that issues credit card products on behalf of small credit unions and banks across the U.S.
Hollywood Entertainment Corp., more commonly known as Hollywood Video, was an American video rental store chain. Founded in 1988, the chain was the largest direct competitor to Blockbuster Video until it was acquired by Movie Gallery in 2005. It ceased operations in 2010, when Movie Gallery declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Swisher Hygiene Inc. is a sanitation company in the United States which until 2015 traded on the NASDAQ. Originally a janitorial service company, two-thirds of its revenue are now generated by selling cleaning and sanitizing chemicals.
Discovery Zone (DZ) was an American chain of entertainment facilities featuring games and elaborate indoor mazes designed for young children, including roller slides, climbing play structures, and ball pits. It also featured arcade games. A talking robot character named Z-Bop served as mascot to the chain. Ronald Matsch, Jim Jorgensen and Dr. David Schoenstadt founded Discovery Zone in 1989, with the first location opening in Kansas City, Missouri, in October 1989. An early investor in and vocal supporter of the company was tennis player Billie Jean King.
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock footage is called a "stock shot" or a "library shot". Stock footage may have appeared in previous productions but may also be outtakes or footage shot for previous productions and not used. Examples of stock footage that might be utilized are moving images of cities and landmarks, wildlife in their natural environments, and historical footage. Suppliers of stock footage may be either rights managed or royalty-free. Many websites offer direct downloads of clips in various formats.
Avalon Interactive Group, Ltd. was a British video game distributor based within Europe that formerly traded as the video game publishing and distributing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group.
Redbox Automated Retail, LLC was an American video on-demand streaming and video rental company that specialized in DVD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD rentals and purchases and video games via automated retail kiosks and TVOD, AVOD, and FAST services via its website, Android and iOS apps, and many consumer electronic devices. Redbox kiosks feature the company's signature red color and were located at convenience stores, fast food restaurants, grocery stores, mass retailers, and pharmacies.
Jamba Juice, doing business as Jamba, is an American quick-service restaurant and juice bar chain that sells blended fruit and vegetable juices, smoothies and other food products. The first Jamba Juice location, originally named Juice Club, opened in 1990 in San Luis Obispo, California. Jamba is owned by Focus Brands, an affiliate of private equity firm Roark Capital Group, which completed its acquisition in 2019. The company has more than 850 locations operating in 36 states in the United States, and also has locations in Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia.
Movie Gallery, Inc. was the second largest movie and game rental company in the United States and Canada, behind Blockbuster Video. The company rented and sold Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, VHS tapes, and video games. Founded in Dothan, Alabama, the company was headquartered in Dothan, and later in Wilsonville, Oregon.
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Spelling Television Inc. was an American television production company that went through several name changes. It was originally called Aaron Spelling Productions, then Spelling Entertainment Inc. and eventually part of Spelling Entertainment Group. The company produced popular shows such as The Love Boat, Dynasty, Beverly Hills, 90210, 7th Heaven, Melrose Place and Charmed. The company was founded by television producer Aaron Spelling on October 25, 1965. The company is currently an in-name-only unit of CBS Studios. A related company, Spelling-Goldberg Productions, co-existed during a portion of the same time period and produced other well-known shows such as Family, Charlie's Angels, Starsky & Hutch, and Fantasy Island but these series are not part of the modern day library now owned by Paramount Global. Another related company, The Douglas S. Cramer Company co-existed during a portion of the same time period, produced shows like Wonder Woman, Joe and Sons, and Bridget Loves Bernie and television films like Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway.
The original phase of Viacom Inc. was an American mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in New York City. It began as CBS Television Film Sales, the broadcast syndication division of the CBS television network in 1952; it was renamed CBS Films in 1958, renamed CBS Enterprises in 1968, renamed Viacom in 1970, and spun off into its own company in 1971. Viacom was a distributor of CBS television series throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and also distributed syndicated television programs. The company went under Sumner Redstone's control in 1987 through his cinema chain company National Amusements.
Roy Black was a British-born businessman, known for his work at Electronic Rentals Group, a UK public company during the 1960s in Dublin, Ireland specialising in television rentals. By 1970, ERG was the world's second largest Electronic Rental Company in the world with operations in 22 countries. From 1967 to 1973, ERG owned Gola and the Leisure Division was run by Alan Christopher Cowell MC along with companies like Camping Gaz Gola Sporting Goods.
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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 chairman of the board of directors at BRIX Holdings LLC and the Managing Partner of JAMCO Interests LLC.