Blackhawk Network Announces New Gift Card Partnership With Coinstar

PLEASANTON, Calif., Dec. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackhawk Network, Inc., a leading prepaid payment network, today announced a new partnership with Coinstar (www.coinstar.com). The partnership offers Coinstar customers a selection of certain Blackhawk Network's popular eGifts for no fee when they cash in coins via the Coinstar coin-counting kiosks. The eGift codes can then be easily redeemed at issuing retailers – either in-store, online or via mobile devices.

With approximately 20,300 kiosks conveniently located across the US, Coinstar makes it simple for consumers to convert their spare change into a cash voucher, for a fee that varies by location, or load these funds onto their choice of NO FEE gift card or eGift. Through the Blackhawk Network partnership, Coinstar customers are now able to choose eGifts from popular brands, such as Gap, Inc., iTunes, Lowe's, Southwest Airlines®, Toys"R"Us, Babies"R"Us and others, just in time for the holiday shopping season.  

"The Coinstar relationship brings our digital network capabilities to the physical retail environment," said Tomas Campos, General Manager, Digital, Blackhawk Network. "It expands the convenience of gift cards to the consumer, while increasing revenue opportunities for retailers."

"We love being able to help people transform what they have into what they want," said Mike Skinner, President of Coinstar. "This partnership with Blackhawk Network allows us to offer our customers new ways to conveniently transform loose change into real shopping potential at some of their favorite retailers."

Blackhawk Network continues to build its extensive network of global content providers and distribution partners, and expects to make additional partner brands available via Coinstar kiosks in the future.

About Blackhawk Network

Blackhawk Network Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAWK) is a leading prepaid payment network which supports the physical and digital distribution of a large range of prepaid products. Blackhawk Network utilizes proprietary technology to provide consumers a wide selection of gift cards, prepaid telecom handsets, airtime cards and general purpose reloadable cards across a global network totaling over 100,000 stores. Through Blackhawk's digital platform, the company supports prepaid products and offers across a growing network of digital distribution partners including leading etailers, financial service providers, social apps, mobile wallets and other integrated physical-to-digital channels. Founded in 2001, Blackhawk Network is headquartered in Pleasanton, California, and offers products and services in the United States and 18 other countries. For more information please, visit www.blackhawknetwork.com and www.giftcardmall.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements are indicated by words or phrases such as "guidance," "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "plans," "continuing," "ongoing," and similar words or phrases and the negative of such words and phrases. Forward-looking statements are based on our current plans and expectations and involve risks and uncertainties which are, in many instances, beyond our control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in or contemplated or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include the following: our ability to increase revenue opportunities for retailers, our ability to continue to build our network of global partners, our ability to make additional partner brands available to retailers, our ability to grow at historic rates or at all, the consequences should we lose one or more of our top distribution partners or fail to attract new distribution partners to our network or if the financial performance of our distribution partners' businesses decline, our reliance on our content providers, the demand for their products and our exclusivity arrangements with them, our reliance on relationships with card issuing banks, the consequences to our future growth if our distribution partners fail to actively and effectively promote our products and services, the requirement that we comply with applicable laws and regulations, including increasingly stringent money-laundering rules and regulations, risks related to our ongoing relationship with Safeway and other risks and uncertainties described in our reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the registration statement filed in connection with our initial public offering and our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.  We undertake no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect developments or information obtained after the date hereof and disclaim any obligation to do so other than as may be required by law.

About Coinstar

Coinstar, part of the Outerwall Inc. (Nasdaq: OUTR) family, is a leader in money services. It owns and operates the only multi-national, fully automated network of self-service coin-counting kiosks. The company has approximately 20,300 coin-counting locations in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Coinstar kiosks processes approximately $3 billion in coins annually.  Coinstar makes it simple to convert coins to cash or consumers can receive no-fee coin-counting when choosing a gift card or eCertificate. In addition, select Coinstar kiosks offer PayPal functionality, enabling consumers to conveniently and securely add coins and paper currency into their PayPal account, as well as send money to another PayPal account. For more information on Coinstar please visit www.coinstar.com and for information on Outerwall Inc., please visit www.outerwall.com.

For more information:

Blackhawk Network
MWW for Blackhawk
[email protected] 
415.464.6422

Coinstar
[email protected]  

SOURCE Blackhawk Network, Inc.