Coinstar Hires General Manager to Drive Company's Expansion into E-Payments Category.

Business Editors

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 19, 2004

Coinstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSTR), the leader in self-service coin counting, today announced the appointment of Steve Verleye to the position of general manager of Electronic Payment Solutions.

Verleye brings to Coinstar more than 25 years experience, which includes leading organizations, driving business development for emerging markets, sales and new channel development, and forming strategic alliances. Most recently, Verleye was the president and CEO of Applied Microsystems where he led a new management team through a turn-around effort, involving investment in new markets and new technology. Prior to that, he held senior management positions at Radisys Corp., Sequent Computer Systems, and Intel Corp.

Coinstar, best known for its convenient self-service kiosks that turn coins into cash, began offering new electronic services across its 10,000-plus-machine network in 2003, including prepaid cash cards, prepaid wireless services, and electronic payroll services. Last year, Coinstar also introduced its Coinstar Prepaid Center(TM), offering a range of self-service electronic transactions from a small footprint kiosk.

"Steve's knowledge of technology combined with his proven track record in building new businesses are strong assets to Coinstar," said Dave Cole, chief executive officer of Coinstar, Inc. "Adding to the strength of Coinstar's senior management team, Steve's experience will help us accelerate our presence in the e-payments market, and we're very pleased to have him on board."

The e-payments category includes services ranging from prepaid products to bill payment and payroll debit cards. Industry analyst data shows that the prepaid segment alone represented $99 billion in 2003 and is projected to grow to $154 billion by 2005. This includes prepaid wireless, digital content and stored value cards.

Verleye joined Coinstar this month, and is located at the company's corporate headquarters in Bellevue, Wash.

About Coinstar Inc.

Coinstar Inc. owns and operates the only network of supermarket-based machines that offer coin counting and other electronic services. The company has more than 10,000 machines linked by a sophisticated interactive network throughout the United States, as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Coinstar Prepaid Center is a trademark of Coinstar, Inc.

This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to the growth of electronic funds transfer, bill payment and prepaid services that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "believe," "expect," "intend," "anticipate," "goals," variations of such words, and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that the statement is not forward-looking. The forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may vary significantly from the results expressed or implied in such statements. Differences may result from actions taken by Coinstar, Inc., as well as from risks and uncertainties beyond the Company's control. Actual results may vary significantly from the results expressed or implied in such statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the acceptance of new products and technological advances. For more information on factors that may affect future performance of Coinstar, Inc., please review the most recent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Coinstar, Inc. These forward-looking statements reflect Coinstar, Inc.'s expectations as of February 19, 2004. Coinstar, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update the information provided herein.