Gamestop & EB Games Merge

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From Gamespot:

GameStop Corp. (GME) and Electronics Boutique Holdings Corp. (ELBO), owner of EB Games, announced that their shareholders have green-lighted the merger of the two companies. The approval was the last step in the deal, which was made public in April.

The companies will officially merge over the weekend, and will retain the name GameStop Corp. The deal is estimated to be worth $1.44 billion, and will result in approximately 4,000 retail stores across the globe.

The fusion of the two companies creates the largest retailer focused on gaming, and gives larger retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy, some heavy competition in the sector. The new company will handle approximately one quarter of the gaming market.

The new company will dominate the used-game market, as GameStop and EB are currently the leaders for preowned games by a wide margin. However, that margin may soon close--Best Buy is currently testing out a used-game program in some of its California and Illinois stores.

Both GME and ELBO were up slightly on the day, 1.81 and .72 percent, respectively.

I suppose this could be a good thing. It'd be nice to get a giant video game chain, maybe get the world to take the media seriously. Hopefully this will get EB Games to make some serious changes though, those stores have been horrid for the last few years.

[PkmnTrainerJ]

Cool. As long as this leads to DS hotspot machines in more games stores, I like it.

[therockbox]

I'm assuming GameStop own GAME? Because I'm sure they bought out EB (here in England, anyway) quite a while back.

[PkmnTrainerJ]

As far as I know yeah, Gamestop own GAME.

[Summers]

GAME is shit. Gamestation all the way.

[therockbox]

Virtual Game is the best. They give you more than anyone else for trade-ins and most of their games are cheaper than everywhere.

[Cactus Drags]

I've found Gamestation to be top-notch with trade-in prices.

[Thatz]

Cool, they're pretty much the same store anyway.

[Cole]

As long as this doesn't affect any of my ordering games from EB to Canada (since I have to order ones we don't get here) then I couldn't be bothered.

Are they sticking with one of the names or merging the two?