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🠈  Rent-A-Center  🠊

Rent-A-Center

Rent-A-Center (aka RAC) is a international chain of rent-to-own stores based in Plano, Tx with stores in Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico. The company trades on the NASDAQ with the symbol RCII.

The rent-to-own concept used by the company was formulated by Ernest Talley in the 1960s who opened Mr. T's Rentals in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A rent-to-own contract deeds ownership of an item to the renter after a set term.

In 1973 a former employee Mr. T's Rentals worked with Frank Barton to create a company called Rent-A-Center in Wichita, Ks.. This was acquired by a British firm called Thorn EMI. Thorn expanded Rent-A-Center to over a thousand stores.

In 1986 Ernest Thorn and Mark Speese formed a company called Vista Rent-To-Own which changed its name to Renters Choice in 1993 and went public on NASDAQ with the symbol RCII.

In 1998, Renters Choice acquired Thorn Americas which owned 1,409 stores with 1,158 stores under the "Rent-A-Center" brand for $900M. To fund the merger, RCII issued $260M in preferred stocks to affiliates of Apollo Management and Bear, Stearns & Co..

In 2006, RAC acquired 782 stores from Rent-Way. This is the merger chain reported by Funding Universe:

In the video RAC discusses the rent-to-own concept.

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References:

  1. Wichita Edu - Barton Legacy (Drawn 12/15/2017)
  2. Rent-A-Center - Our History (Drawn 12/17/2017)
  3. Wikipedia - Rent-A-Center (Drawn 12/15/2017)
  4. SEC - FORM 10K (Drawn 12/15/2017)
  5. Furniture Today - Rent-A-Center to acquire Rent-Way (Drawn 12/15/2017)
  6. Funding Universe - Rent-Way (Drawn 12/15/2017)

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