Chicken Soup for the Soul is buying Redbox, Ford CEO auctions a one-on-one lunch

Yahoo Finance's Brad Smith and Brian Sozzi break down two other business stories today regarding Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment and Ford.

Video transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

BRAD SMITH: Welcome back, everyone. It's time for "Cut for Time." Two stories today, 1 minute each. Let's start with this. Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment completes its deal to buy DVD retailer Redbox Entertainment. We were tracking shares of the company, both Chicken Soup for the Soul. They're seeing that down by about 1%. I don't know if we could take a look at Redbox shares, though, as well. This one has been on a really bumpy ride.

This is Chicken Soup over the past two days, seeing gains of about 28%. Redbox, though, last time I checked, those shares were down over the past two days by about 52%. So even though this is the company being acquired, you're not seeing shares move higher. That's kind of atypical in a scenario like this.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, Redbox shares have been extremely volatile, have been consistently one of the top trending tickers on the Yahoo Finance platform. Really going on the past few months. Just been fascinating to see this. But Redbox is an interesting. I still have them by me. I still see people rolling up to 7-Eleven, taking out various rentals from Redbox. So there's very much still a business there.

BRAD SMITH: I have a whole box of Redbox DVDs from my college days. That was probably--

BRIAN SOZZI: You didn't bring them back?

BRAD SMITH: Well, you know--

BRIAN SOZZI: What? You have to return them.

BRAD SMITH: I forgot. I'm, like, an entire line item for them back in 2012.

BRIAN SOZZI: You're an inventory writedown.

[BUZZER]

BRAD SMITH: I am.

BRIAN SOZZI: Oh, my God. All right, let's switch gears here literally. Ford CEO Jim Farley is auctioning a one-on-one lunch with him at the upcoming Rolex Monterey Sports reunion. All proceeds from the auction going to the Laguna Seca Round Raceway Foundation. Look, I would potentially do this, to eat lunch with Jim Farley.

BRAD SMITH: It's an expensable lunch.

BRIAN SOZZI: Sure. Look, he's an on-fire executive. A lot of things are going right for Jim right now. He's turning the company around. We've talked to him many, many times. We have not had to pay $60,000 to get access to Jim Farley. It's been fun to see what he's been doing. I would like to have lunch with him.

BRAD SMITH: It's for the foundation, though, so there's got to be a good tax write-off, too.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, that as well, too. I like what [INAUDIBLE] had to say about demand for commercial vans. To hear that being strong at a time where businesses are struggling, it was interesting to hear that from him.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah, and particularly here for the time that Ford has had over the course of this year and the restructuring that's been taking place, and really, reformation or renaissance, if you will, of the business and the different divisions between ICE and electric vehicles. I think, though, for Ford here, and it'll be interesting to see if they have anything to say at the lunch about the electrification strategy that they have going forward.

[BUZZER]

BRIAN SOZZI: Now this, too.

BRAD SMITH: 60,000.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, and I like Jim Farley really just sticking it to Elon Musk. I like that comment from yesterday. I like to see a fired up Jim Farley.