Coinstar (CSTR) shares are trading modestly higher after Merriman Curhan Ford analyst Eric Wold asserted in a research note today that the coming release of Avatar on DVD could be a catalyst for a distribution deal between the DVD kiosk vendor and 20th Century Fox, which is unit of News Corp. (Disclosure: So is this blog.)
Avatar will be released in a bare-bones 2D DVD on April 22. Wold thinks Fox will want to have deals in place with Coinstar’s Redbox unit – and possibly with Netflix (NFLX) – ahead of the the release to spur additional purchases. “Without a doubt, Avatar will� be one of the highest grossing DVD releases during 2010…and one that Fox would want to monetize most effectively,” he writes.
A deal with Fox would “remove another cloud” from the Redbox story, he writes, since it would likely end the litigation between the two companies.
CSTR is up 64 cents, or 1.9%, to $34.51.
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