GameStop NNN Properties | 1031 Exchange

Gamestop – The Top Video Game Retailer With an Impressive Grotwth Record

 GameStop Corp., is a US based video game retailer, which is usually referred as GameStop. Apart from being a video game retailer, it also operates as consumer electronics and wireless services retailer. It operates 7,117 retail stores across US, Canada, Australia, Europe and New Zealand. Its retail stores mainly work under the EB, Micromania and GameStop brands. Its headquarters is located in Grapevine, Texas, United States.

Presently, Daniel DeMatteo is the Executive Chairman while J. Paul Rines is serving as the Chief Executive Officer. GameStop has accounted that around 2000 employees are working full time in its retail stores across the globe.

Current Market Value

The company reported a US$ 9 billion revenue in 2014. In the same year it had an operating income of US$ 598.9 million. With a net income of US$ 354.2 million in 2014, it had a sum of assets worth US$ 4.1 billion. The company stood in the 1630 position on the Forbes Global 2000 list. GameStop is a rapidly growing company with a yearly profit  that is worth up to US$ 1.8 billion a year.

History

The roots of GameStop begin from Babbage’s, a Texas, Dallas based software retailer founded by James Curry and Gary M Sinus in 1984. James and Gary were classmates in the Harvard Business School when they founded Babbage’s, which is named after Charles Babbage, The Father of Computer. The company opened its first retail store at Northpark Center, Dallas with the help of Ross Perot, an early investor in the firm. The company quickly began to focus on video games which accounted for two third of its sales in 1991. They went public in 1988. Babbage’s merged with Software etc., and formed the NeoStar Retail Group in 1994. Babbage’s and Software Etc. were merged into a single unit in May 1996 by NeoStar.

Daniel DeMatteo resigned from the Company’s president post and the NeoStar chairman and CEO James McCurry assumed the title of president.  Leonardo Riggio purchased NeoStar in November, 1996 and renamed it as Babbage’s Etc. Babbage’s Etc. launched a GameStop brand with 30 stores in strip malls in 1999. They also launched GameStop.com which allowed the customers to purchase video games online. Later in 1999, Barnes and Noble purchased Babbage’s Etc. for US$ 215 million. GameStop was made public by Barnes and Noble in February, 2002 by an IPO in New York Stock Exchange.

Acquisitions

GameStop acquired EB Games for US$ 1.44 billion in 2005. This expanded the operations on GameStop’s to Europe, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In 2007, they acquired Rhino Video Games for an undisclosed amount. Later in April 2008, Free Record Shops were acquired by GameStop and converted their 49 stores into video game shops. In august, 2008 Daniel DeMatteo replaced Richard Fontaine as the CEO of the company. The company continued to acquire many more small firms to expand its territory across the globe on a larger scale, with its latest acquisition being the 507 AT&T on August 3, 2016.