Company Profile
GameStop
Company Overview
GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, is the world's largest multichannel video game retailer. GameStop’s retail network and family of brands include 6,670 company-operated stores in 17 countries worldwide; www.Kongregate.com, a leading browser-based game site; and Game Informer(R) magazine, the leading multi-platform video game publication. The company also sells video games and related merchandise at www.GameStop.com
Company History
GameStop traces its roots to Babbage's, a small software retailer that started in Dallas, Texas. The metamorphosis from Babbage's into GameStop began with a series of mergers. The first was with Software Etc., a deal in which businessman Leonard Riggio, formed Babbage’s Etc. LLC.
In 1999, Babbage’s Etc. was sold to Barnes & Noble. The next merger was with Funco, Inc., which was acquired by Barnes & Noble in June 2000. Following this acquisition, Babbage’s Etc became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Funco. At the end of 2000, Funco changed its name to GameStop.
In late 2004, GameStop spun off from Barnes & Noble with its buy back of six million shares of stock from the book seller. GameStop then proceeded to acquire Electronics Boutique (EB Games) in 2005. In January 2007, GameStop purchased Rhino Video Games from Blockbuster.
In August of 2008, R. Richard Fontaine became GameStop Corp. Executive Chairman, and Dan DeMatteo replaced him as CEO. Paul Raines joined the Company as Chief Operating Officer. Also in 2008, GameStop acquired Micromania, France's leading video game retailer.
Looking to the Digital Future:
In 2009, GameStop took a major step by initiating a digital growth strategy that included a November acquisition of Jolt Online Gaming, an Ireland-based publisher of free-to-play titles.