GameStop

GameStop Corporation

Company type	Public (NYSE: GME)
Industry	Electronics stores
Founded	1984 (as Babbage's) in Dallas, Texas
Headquarters	Grapevine, TX (USA)
Key people	Dick Fontaine (Executive Chairman), Daniel DeMatteo (CEO), J. Paul Raines (COO), David W. Carlson (CFO)
Revenue	$7.093 billion USD (2007)[1]
Operating income	−311,600,000 United States dollar (2023)
Net income	6,700,000 United States dollar (2024)
Total assets	2,709,000,000 United States dollar (2024)
Number of employees	44,000
Website	www.gamestop.com

GameStop Corporation (NYSE: GME) is a video game and entertainment software retailer. The company, whose headquarters are in Grapevine, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), United States, operates 6,200 retail stores throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Austria, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Portugal, Sweden and in the United Kingdom. GameStop will opened around 400 new stores for the 2009 business year.

Retail stores name GameStop, EB Games, Micromania and MovieStop. In addition, the company runs two e-commerce websites, GameStop.com and EBgames.com, and also Game Informer magazine, GameStop's proprietary video and computer game publication. In addition to video and computer games, GameStop sells magazines, strategy guides, entertainment DVDs (which as of late 2008 stopped), and other related merchandise. A major source of the company's profit is also buying used games and films from its customers and selling them back at an increase. Approximately 48% of Gamestop's revenue is from its used products sales (based on the quarter that ended Nov. 1 2008). A new store concept called MovieStop, which focuses on selling movies rather than games, is currently building and operating stores in the southeastern United States, including the Dallas area.

History

Gamestop traces its roots to Babbage's, a small software retailer that started in Dallas, Texas in 1983. The movements that made Babbage's into GameStop started in 1994 with a series of mergers between Babbage's and several other software retailers. The first was with Software Etc. in 1994, the second was with Funcoland stores in 2000, and the third was with Electronics Boutique in 2005, taking four competing, major software retailers and placing them under a single corporate umbrella.

When Babbages merged with another stalling software retailer, Software Etc., in 1994 the combined company was named NeoStar Retail, but the two halves continued to operate as if they were separate entities.

The combined management of the newly formed entity developed a classic case of the right hand not knowing what the left was doing. This ultimately caused NeoStar to go into Chapter 11 reorganization in early fall of 1996. At this point the company had approximately 800 stores in the United States. Several potential buyers of NeoStar's assets emerged

Leonard Riggio

On the last day of the manager's conference there was a special guest during lunch. Leonard Riggio, the head of Barnes & Noble, announced that he and a group of investors were going to put in place the financing to keep the company afloat, and get new merchandise into the stores in time for Christmas (at this point, the company's creditors were owed so much back revenue that they were no longer shipping anything to NeoStar).

In a personal comment during the address, Riggio stated that he "hated" the name NeoStar Retail, and thought that the merged Babbage's/Software Etc. should have been called Babbage's Etc. He said should his buyout bid be successful that the company would be renamed.

From the potential buyers, the judge desired to accept the offer from the one that would keep the most people working, preserve the most competition and consumer choice, and be the most stable. Ultimately, Riggio's offer was accepted on the day before Thanksgiving. Barnes & Noble, through B. Dalton, was the original owner of Software Etc. A new management team largely composed of former Software Etc. executives and long time associates of Len Riggio was put in place to run Babbage's

1996 closures

The day after Thanksgiving 1996 approximately 100 Babbage's and Software Etc. stores closed their doors. The remaining merchandise from these stores was shipped to 100 of the remaining stores that would participate in a massive "going out of business" sale throughout December. These 100 stores would close for the last time on Christmas Eve, and all merchandise left would be shipped back to corporate headquarters by New Year's Eve. The company would be pared back to about 600 of its best performing stores.

Acquisition by Barnes & Noble

When Funco, Inc. (operator of FuncoLand stores) was acquired by Barnes & Noble in 2000, there was a corporate restructuring, and Babbage's Etc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of Funco. The name at that time was changed to GameStop, Inc.

In 2002, GameStop bought out the Gamesworld franchise in Ireland and immediately took control of their 10 stores; the company now operates at 51 locations in the Republic of Ireland as well as 7 stores in the United Kingdom.

On November 12, 2004, GameStop spun off from Barnes & Noble. Due to Riggio's involvement, GameStop and Barnes & Noble employees still receive employee discounts at each other's stores, despite the companies being completely separate.

File:GameStopNJ.jpg

An exterior of a GameStop in Watchung Square Mall in Watchung, New Jersey

Merger with EB Games

On April 18, 2005, GameStop and EB Games announced that they had entered into a "definitive agreement and plan of merger". After shareholders and US regulatory agencies approved the merger, it closed on October 10 of that year with the agreement that the companies would be run separately, but not as they had been in the past. To ease the transition process of the two companies being run as one, it was agreed upon that the two separate entities would not merge operating activities until the new fiscal year which starts February 1; this also included maintaining two separate distribution centers. At the beginning of the following year, operating activities of the two companies was integrated, starting with the realignment of districts and the closure of EB's West Chester, PA corporate office. Most of the upper management positions maintained GameStop executives; however, President at the time, Joe DePinto, resigned his position as President and returned to work as President and CEO of 7-Eleven leaving a vacancy for EB President Steve Morgan.

Through the year, GameStop stores transitioned to the EB Games' Windows-based POS, or Point of Sale system, replacing GameStop's aging MS-DOS-based program. At the end of 2006, the only remaining differences between the stores were primarily the interior design and layout of each store, based on when they were built and what company owned them at the time. EB Games stores are in the process of receiving remodels to make them look like GameStop stores. Stores are also receiving the GameStop brand above the store front and inside the store.

After borrowing $100 million from their parent company (Barnes & Noble) by putting all of their retail chain stores up as collatoral in order to purchase their biggest competitor at the time (EB Games), the company was given a deadline of 2011 to pay off their debt. Regardless GameStop has continued expansion into Europe and Mexico.

Acquisition of Rhino Video Games

On January 4, 2007, GameStop Corp. officially purchased Rhino Video Games from Blockbuster and the stores were renamed GameStop during a remodel period lasting through late Spring 2007.

Competition

After acquiring EB Games, GameStop helped to solidify its position with "hardcore gamers". Remaining competition comes from Amazon.com, BestBuy, Toys-R-Us and other retailers of video games. In 2009, Amazon.com began a trade-in program for used games, where customers can trade in games for credits for other games. This is in direct competition with GameStop's existing trade-in program.

Phrenzie.com says that the competition from Amazon (and BestBuy and others) is overstated as the customer base is different: Amazon's customers being more casual gamers and, thus, are not as apt to trade in games for newer ones, and that people who trade-in games want the immediacy of trading in an old game and getting a different game on the spot, rather than mailing in an old game to Amazon, and then waiting some more to have the new game mailed to them.

This presents an opportunity for companies to offer delivery of games via more immediate distribution channels, like broadband.

Acquisitions in other countries

Norway

On April 6, 2008, GameStop Corp. officially purchased 51 stores from the Norwegian entertainment company Free Record Shop. Throughout the summer of 2008, most of the stores were rebranded to GameStop.

France

In October 2008, GameStop announced it would purchase France’s leading video-game retailer, Micromania, from the L Capital equity fund for $700 million, including debt. The purchase of Micromania will add 332 locations (boosting locations in Europe to 1,077 total) and expand GameStop into France for the first time. Micromania President Directeur General Pierre Cuilleret will keep his current post. GameStop financed the purchase with cash on hand, credit, and $150 million loan from Bank of America.

This acquisition took place in November 2008.

Other brands and concepts

MovieStop

MovieStop stores focus on selling movies rather than games, with a structure similar to that of a GameStop. They buy, sell, and trade movies. MovieStop offers an array of movies, both used and new, in DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and Universal Media Disc formats. As of July 2008, there are 45 MovieStop stores across the United States, including those in Pennsylvania, Alabama, Virginia, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, and Florida. Also, similar to GameStop's policy with games, customers do not need a case to trade movies. However, at MovieStop, an item traded without its original case yields less store credit or cash than an item with its original case.

MovieStop contracted E-Play to produce kiosks that buy, sell, and rent movies. These are normally found in GameStops in the midwest and southeast of the United States . They exchange your DVD's or Blu-Rays for GameStop store credit. The kiosk pricing follows GameStop rules, however the kiosk itself does not sell disks in cases. If you wish to have the case you must ask a GameStop employee to fetch it. You may also rent movies from the kiosk.

MovieStop machines found outside of GameStop stores will only accept disks in return for the credit of the store they are found at.

EB Games

EB Games is still currently in use by GameStop as an international label for many of its markets. Most of these are remaining stores that were not re-branded in the merger, due to the potential cost of the re-branding process. The EB Games is also still displayed on GameStop's store locater, next to GameStop's own logo. Also, some EB Games stores that were located very near to GameStop stores before the merger (such as in the same shopping center or mall) were not re-branded due to possible customer confusion as to why there would be two.

Criticism

GameStop has received criticism for its new game policy and its trade in policy. GameStop's new game policy is to remove the new game from the case and store it in a sleeve in a drawer behind the cash registers. Consumers complain that games being sold in this fashion are not new, and that it is false advertisement. Some people have also claimed that game media has been obtained with flaws, such as scratches on discs. This can be due to the company's "employee checkout policy." Criticism for the company's used game policy stems from the buyback value and the resell price. Games are usually bought from the consumer at a low price and are often sold at a much higher price, sometimes reaching over 5x the buyback value. Gamestop has also been criticized for their removal of games from older systems such as the Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis.

External links

• GameStop official website