GameStop Swoops In To Buy ThinkGeek For $140 Million 93
Lirodon writes: Remember a few days ago, when Slashdot's former parent company was the subject of a $122 million takeover bid by Hot Topic? Well, another geeky retailer entered the fray in the battle for ThinkGeek, and won. GameStop will be acquiring Geeknet for $140 million. The video game retailer has promised synergies, such as in-store pickup and integration with its rewards program.
Might make Gamestop a bit more relevant (Score:5, Interesting)
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Remember a few years ago when Source Forge projects were safe from being arbitrarily hijacked by DICE, and didn't have adware and crapware bundled in with their deployment packages by DICE, and stories of misdeeds by DICE would actually get posted on slashdot?
Those were good years.
Re:Might make Gamestop a bit more relevant (Score:5, Funny)
Announcer: Do you remember a time when chocolate chips came fresh from the oven? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Fry: Ah, those were the days.
Announcer: Do you remember a time when women couldn't vote and certain people weren't allowed on golf courses? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
---Futurama S01E06: A Fishful of Dollars.
RIP Think Geek (Score:2, Insightful)
Game Stop sucks. How are they even still in business?
Re:RIP Think Geek (Score:5, Informative)
That's what happens when you buy all your competitors.
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Still better than Hot Topic. At least in this way there's actual overlap in product alignment. Hot Topic... not a chance.
Are you sure? The Wikipedia article claims that they sell:-
Tripp, Disney, Sanrio, DC Comics, WWE, Heartcore Clothing, Iron Fist, Nintendo, Nickelodeon, Invader Zim, Harry Potter, as well as web celebrities and music acts such as hip-hop artists, Psychopathic Records and Hopeless Records, and more recently, Doctor Who, Adventure Time, Regular Show, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Sons of Anarchy, Resident Evil, and Domo merchandise
Looks like there's quite a lot of overlap with the geek demographic there.
We don't have Hot Topic where I live (sob!) but from what I've heard their business model essentially consists of appropriating "alternative" cultures and trends, commercialising them into a very consumerist form.
ThinkGeek's business model seems hardly any different- essentially using flattery and identity marketing ("smart geeks buy this stuff!") to push a very consumeri
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For Gamestop with pressure from download game distributors the pressure is on to diversify, so merchandising is the obvious choice for them, along with say comic distribution. They can not switch to a download distribution model because that puts their own stores out of business. So for them offering a second hand market, merchandising, stuff the down loaders can never really offer. Eventually you will see them merger with the computer hardware sellers, as they are struggling as well. All this very much li
Eh ... (Score:5, Insightful)
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I was on Thinkgeek's mailing list for a while. I signed up when I made an order, and I was like "oh cool I can get an email every once and a while telling me about all the latest cool stuff and the occasional sale". And that's what it was, at least at first. Then the emails started coming in every few days instead of every few weeks, then every couple of days, then everyday, and even more than once a day.
The emails were mostly about some promo code, many of which were a pretty significant discount. Free
Re:Eh ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Think Geek -IS- Hot Topic.
If you've not been in a Hot Topic any time in the last 8 years let me summarize it for you: Bazinga shirts and Nickelodeon merch.
Now just add in some token "nerd toys", and remove the black paint from the walls and you've got a place that's hard to differentiate from Think Geek.
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This is the first day that I've heard of Hot Topic.
Re:Eh ... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Front page and focus of the store to back page and afterthought.
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I'm interested to know how this affects international - ThinkGeek has some cool stuff you can only buy from it and can't get in the UK.
I've ordered stuff from ThinkGeek before but on two occasions they sent the wrong thing that weighed far less and cost far less, told me the right thing was out of stock even though they were still selling it because they didn't want to pay international shipping for their mistake again, took over a month to process the refund after I had to chase it 5 times, and when they d
Ooooh synergies (Score:3)
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It is good to know that I'll be able to pick up my t-shirt from that guy at Gamestop with the ponytail who keeps wanting to tell me about his character in WoW rather than have to go through the hassle of having it mailed directly to my house.
Thank you Gamestop (Score:4, Insightful)
You're doing it wrong (Score:3, Funny)
"The video game retailer has promised synergies, such as in-store pickup..."
Uh, in-store pickup?
You already paid for that massive chain of brick and mortar locations you run already.
Please tell me you're not going to forget that store is an actual store and offer a bit more than just pick-up service for what is now your own product.
Online competition (Score:2, Insightful)
They're probably looking at competing against other eTailers and minimizing floorspace (similar to BestBuy) by allowing such items to be ordered in-store. Hopefully they keep some of the new/popular stuff in stock though and don't underestimate the power of a shiny toy at eye-height.
Re:You're doing it wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
The average Gamestop barely has room for their requisite 3 neckbeards and 40 copies of Gears of War 2 as it is.
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They had to remove relevant PC games to make room for all their consoles games.
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GameStop removed PC games once widespread Internet activation requirements destroyed the used market.
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Remember the Gateway Country Stores? They were nothing more than showrooms, you couldn't walk in and then walk out with a computer, you had to have it ordered. OTOH... they're all gone now, so that sales model wasn't exactly a resounding success.
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S word (Score:3)
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Stole my post. "Synergies"? Hopefully slashdot is not fucked.
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I was at a company that one time started a new marketing gimmick with the word "Synergy" standing by itself. The next day Gartner Group upgraded our ranking from the bad quadrant to the good quadrant by saying "they finally get it". Never underestimate the ability of clueless analysts to believe your bullshit.
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It's not Hot Topic and GameStop that are merging; it's GameStop and ThinkGeek. There is the opportunity for "synergy" (yeah, I hate the word, too) in that they're both retailers to a similar demographic, but one is online and the other is brick-and-mortar. They can do all kinds of cross-selling and get a combined company that sells more than either of the two separately. As well as eliminating a few minor redundancies in the staffing (such as maintaining two completely independent web sites), though that ki
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I think I'm already shopping there!
Haven't been to a GameStop since they Stopped (Score:2)
buying/selling used PC games more than 10 years ago. This might be good for them but will definitely be bad for Thinkgeek which has been coming up with some of their own products some of which are quite good (I'm not affiliated with them in any way but g/f has told me that the LeVar Burton Star Trek TNG/Reading Rainbow joke t-shirt I got her has gotten her more compliments than anything else and that was/is an exclusive).
Their prices are high but they do have some cool stuff. I wonder how badly GameStop wil
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Steam has utterly destroyed the used game market. That's what game DRM is all about, not anti-piracy but anti-resale. Of course Game Stop wasn't a good player in the used game market, with bad trade in values and miniscule discounts, but it was the most significant player still supporting used games. I only got Steam because of Fallout: New Vegas, naively thinking it was like FO3 with minimal copy protection.
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Who needs used games when you can buy a "new" copy on Steam a year later for $10?
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Who needs used games when you can buy a "new" copy on Steam a year later for $10?
Point. It's been quite a while since I last spent more than $20 on a game thanks to Steam.
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Making ThinkGeek even less relevant, hmm? (Score:3)
At least Hot Topic owning ThinkGeek was amusing. GameStop owning them is disgusting, and ensures that I won't be purchasing anything from ThinkGeek anymore.
Re:Making ThinkGeek even less relevant, hmm? (Score:5, Interesting)
At least Hot Topic owning ThinkGeek was amusing
I think, of the two, Hot Topic could have significantly grown the brand - and ultimately that would have been good for geekdom, writ large.
Not sure how the deal is being structured, but if it's a stock deal, this is bad for shareholders. Gamers aren't going to spend their cash on a bunch of crap that they can't play and non-gamer geeks aren't going to go hang around in Gamestop shopping for stuff with all the smelly gamers in there. Whatever the difference per diluted share Gamestop is bringing, that'll all get pissed away within the first year.
One presumes, though, that it's a partial cash deal and the extra dozen-million bucks or so will be split up among the managers. So ... good news for the competition. Around here we have a chain called Newbury Comics that competes in this space. Right now is the time for them to get a huge funding round...
Re:Making ThinkGeek even less relevant, hmm? (Score:5, Funny)
If you weren't too fucking lazy to read the article, you might know that it's a combination of $37 million and $20/share. You don't deserve your low ID.
While you were busy 'reading articles', he was busy getting a low ID. BTW, UID 1 never read an article.
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i hope they change the branding away from games so they won't feel so pressured into selling me preorders for games I don't give a shit about when I walk in for replacement cables or whatever it is i need.
Not to be the different guy, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
Everybody seems to think this is a bad idea. However, I think it's awesome. There are gamestops everywhere around my house. Probably 5 within 10 miles in any direction. Imagine if those places carried more than used games and consoles. Imagine for a moment that they also carry the same cool stuff that you would normally want to buy, but the shipping costs might have turned you away.
Personally, I think this is great news. My T-shirt collection will probably double in size over the next year.
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I haven't had a bad experience there personally. They don't give you much for used games and consoles, but then again, when I've tried to sell the stuff on ebay or craigslist, I haven't made enough of a difference where I think they could have offered me any more and still made money. It's cheaper to buy a game from them than grab it brand new somewhere, if you don't mind waiting a month or two after one comes out.
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AIUI secondhand shops (whether specialist like gamestop or more general) work on large gross profit margins, they won't buy something unless they think they can sell it for at least half as much again what they bought it for and preferablly more. Afaict this is nessacery to make up for slow turnover, losses due to mispurchases, losses due to market changes (especially with something like recently released video games that depreciates quickly) etc but it means that people end up thinking of them as a ripoff.
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No, I'm in agreement with you here. As much as I don't buy from ThinkGeek anymore (unless they have a really, really wantable T-shirt on sale*...because I'm cheap as hell), having something akin to an Amazon Locker is a boon and a win for them.
It's a heck of a smart business strategy and it's going to be interesting (to me at least) to see how successful it is.
*I have a "Fhloston Paradise" t-shirt, and alas, no one ever recognizes the reference. That causes me to be bummed in almost unreasonable amounts.
Re: Not to be the different guy, but... (Score:2)
If I saw you in your T-shirt, I'd ask you if you recognized the music.
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As in what the actual song the Diva sang was?
Re: Not to be the different guy, but... (Score:2)
Wrong music. You may not recognize it, but some did.
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Okay, that's probably a bit of trivia that's passed me by.
However, another aficionado of the same movie I know claimed that Dallas and Zorg didn't even know each other existed. While it's true they never met, there's no way Dallas didn't know Zorg owned the company he worked for, and Zorg had to know all about the winner of the Gemini Croquettes sweepstakes.
Re: Not to be the different guy, but... (Score:2)
Zorg knew the music.
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Do you live in the deep south? (If you're outside the US I don't know)
Seems like the kind of shirt 1/50 people here would recognize... at least I would hope so.
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No, northeast US.
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No, I'm in agreement with you here. As much as I don't buy from ThinkGeek anymore (unless they have a really, really wantable T-shirt on sale*...because I'm cheap as hell), having something akin to an Amazon Locker is a boon and a win for them.
It's a heck of a smart business strategy and it's going to be interesting (to me at least) to see how successful it is.
*I have a "Fhloston Paradise" t-shirt, and alas, no one ever recognizes the reference. That causes me to be bummed in almost unreasonable amounts.
Supergreen.
Fire, water, earth, air, boron (Score:2)
*I have a "Fhloston Paradise" t-shirt, and alas, no one ever recognizes the reference.
Something to do with boron...
[Your session is about to time out. Swipe your MULTIPASS to read the rest of this comment.]
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Every time I pass through customs I really want to say "moolteee pass" when I hand the border agent my passport...
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Nobody with such a low Slashdot UID should still be wearing t-shirts with clever sayings or Star Wars characters on them.
It might be time to grow up and switch to Hawaiian shirts.
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I'm currently wearing a Crow T. Robot T-shirt ("You know you want me, baby!").
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Well, that sounds nice, but GameStops are tiny stores packed with, um, games. There's no way they could carry more than a very tiny amount of ThinkGeek merchandise. I like your idea too, because I've bought lots of stuff from ThinkGeek for myself and my kids, but I just can't imagine there being much more than in-store pickup for ThinkGeek orders.
There goes the neighborhood (Score:4, Insightful)
Can't wait to see how these "synergies" torpedo thinkgeek.
Of course we'll act shocked that it ruins thinkgeek.
I hope Gamestop gets BAWLS (Score:1)
I love that stuff. Blue reminds me of a shirley temple. Been a shame since all my local gas stations and stores stopped carrying it. Just too expensive to order it from ThinkGeek and can never get myself to throw down on a case of it off of Amazon. I liked the mints with carbonation too, was pretty cool to drop a few into the bottle.
Preorder (Score:4, Funny)
Did Gamestop pre-order geeknet?
Will I now need to pre-order things on ThinkGeek, or not get them at all?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Jim Gaffigan (Score:2)
Every time I hear the name of the store Hot Topic, Jim Gaffigan comedy routines start running through my head.
I, for one, Welcome (Score:1)
Our Coast-to-Coast Mall-Resident $10-Used-Game-Bin-Hosting Near-Overlords.