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Electronics Boutique
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (September 2007) |
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Electronics Boutique (commonly known as EB Games) is an international computer and video games retailer, established as an American company in 1977 by James Kim with a single, electronics-focused kiosk, located in a suburban Philadelphia mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The operation mainly sold calculators and digital watches. Between 1977 and the mid-1990s, the company expanded to (and later stopped) selling computers and other related items. In the mid-1990s, the company's focus switched to TV-based video games and consoles, though many stores still maintain PC game sections. Prior to an October 2005 merger, when the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of GameStop Corp., the international headquarters were located in West Chester, Pennsylvania. After the merger however, Electronics Boutique moved its international headquarters to Sadsburyville, Pennsylvania shortly before the overhaul and reorganization of Southeastern Pennsylvania by Gamestop Corp. Gamestop sold off Electronics Boutique's headquarters in Sadsburyville during the reorganization shortly after the new 2006 year. Electronic Boutique's former headquarters in Sadsburyville, Pennsylvania is currently owned and operated by the company C.T.D.I. which also has a facility in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
As of July 30, 2005, the company operated 2,280 stores in the United States, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Austria and Spain, primarily under the names EB Games and Electronics Boutique. The company operates an e-commerce and international website at http://www.ebgames.com . There is also an Australian EB Games website at http://www.ebgames.com.au and a New Zealand EB Games website at http://www.ebgames.co.nz , while neither support full online shopping like the international website does, they both have many games available for purchase and download at EB Games Australia - Digital Downloads for Australia and EB Games New Zealand - Digital Downloads for New Zealand. The company changed its corporate name to EB Games within the past few years, but the retailer is often still referred to as Electronics Boutique. The company still has stores named Electronics Boutique, EB Games, EBGameworld, EBX, Stop-N-Save, and EB Kids. The reasoning behind the multiple names is not known, but it is speculated that it is to get around a restriction in many malls that there cannot be two stores with the same name. It was believed that this was the same reason that GameStop had not commenced renaming EB Games stores, however this has been disproven since Gamestop has indeed rebranded all stores to GameStop beginning mid-spring 2007, after the acquisition of Rhino Video Games.
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On April 18, 2005, Electronics Boutique and GameStop announced a proposal to merge into one company called GameStop Corp. The merger was approved by the shareholders of both corporations and completed in October 2005, at the cost of many EB Games personnel both at the West Chester headquarters and in the field. In September 2006, the two companies completed what they considered the last major milestone in combining operations -- accepting EB Games gift cards and store credits at GameStop and vice-versa.
EB began its international expansion with the purchase of financially troubled British game retailer Rhino Group in 1995 and the name of the chain was changed from Future Zone to "EB Games" to match the new owner. Store remodels, product mix changes and used video games combined to restore the chain's finances, and promptly embarrass the USA chain with the massive success of EB UK's pre-owned program.
In April 1999 Electronics Boutique's UK entity bought out its main rival, GAME PLC following GAME's near failure after a dreadful Christmas period. Electronics Boutique UK folded Game, Plc into its own structure, keeping Game stores open under their Game branding, and all new stores following the release of Playstation 2 in 2000 used the Game branding, as EB UK wanted to sever its ties with its American parent.
Although the EB-GAME "merger" created a company separate from the US parent, EB retained a 24% ownership stake in the merged chain for a period of time and, under the merger agreement, collected substantial management fees from it until 2004, when the companies agreed to sever the remainder of their ties with a one time settlement. The GAME brand replaced the EB name at all former EB stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland. The new company was the biggest video game retailer in the United Kingdom. However, GameStop Corp. is once again operating in the UK and Ireland under the GameStop brand.
Electronics Boutique commenced operations in Australia in 1997 and rapidly became the number one video game specialty retailer in the country and the only one with a nationwide footprint.
On May 23, 2005, Electronics Boutique announced a definitive agreement to acquire Jump, a retailer based in Valencia, Spain that sells PCs and other consumer electronics. Electronics Boutique plans to begin introducing video game hardware and software into Jump's 141 stores over the next several months. The acquisition provides Electronics Boutique entry into the Spanish marketplace and continues Electronics Boutique's aggressive international expansion.
EB once had a retail presence in South Korea.