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GameStop Corporation (NYSE: GME), headquartered in Grapevine,
Texas, a suburb of Dallas, is the world's largest video game and
entertainment software retailer. The company operates 4,592
retail stores throughout Japan, U.S., Canada, Republic of
Ireland, United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, Finland, Germany,
Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Austria, Puerto Rico ,
Switzerland and Sweden.
 
Retail stores operate primarily under the GameStop and EB Games
brands but also operate under Software Etc., E.B.X., Babbage's,
FuncoLand, and the recently acquired Rhino Video Games. In
addition, the company runs two ecommerce websites, GameStop.com
and EBgames.com, and also Game Informer magazine, a leading
video and computer game publication. In addition to video and
computer games, GameStop sells magazines, strategy guides,
entertainment DVDs and other related merchandise, along with
buying used games and movies from its customers. 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.
 
GameStop traces its roots to Babbage's, a mall 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. The first was with Software Etc. in 1994, the second
was with Funcoland stores in 2000, and the third was with
Electronics Boutique (now EB Games) in 2005, taking four
competing, major mall software retailers and placing them under
a single corporate umbrella.
 
When Babbage's merged with another mall 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. One of the
potential buyers was Electronics Boutique.
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.) Riggio
and his investors would also be making a buyout offer to the
bankruptcy court in the coming week.
 
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, and he was boldly
confident it would be, that the company would be renamed.
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