EB Games
Electronics Boutique is a U.S.-based computer games retailer which was established in 1977 as a single, electronics-focused kiosk located in a suburban Pennsylvania mall, mainly selling calculators and digital watches. The retailer is a subsidiary of GameStop Corp.
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, Spain and Sweden -- primarily under the names EB Games and Electronics Boutique. The company operates an e-commerce website at http://www.ebgames.com.
Within the past few years, the corporation changed its DBA name to EB Games, but often the retailer is still called Electronics Boutique. One possible reason EB created other versions of its store may be to avoid a restriction in many malls that prevents them from having two stores of the same name. In addition, some EB Games stores are named EBGameworld/EBX/Stop-N-Save.
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. Since January 29, 2006, these two respected companies have been officially merged.
International
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 to match the new owner. Store remodels, product mix changes and used video games combined to restore the chain's finances.
In early 2003, Electronics Boutique's UK entity merged with Game Group Plc and the "GAME" brand replaced the EB name at all former EB stores in the UK and Ireland. The new company was the biggest video game retailer in the United Kingdom. However, GameStop Corp. is once again operating in Ireland under the GameStop brand.
Although the EB-GAME merger created a company separate from the US parent, EB retained some ownership interest in the merged chain for a while 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.
EB commenced operations in Australia from scratch in 1997 and rapidly became the number 1 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 had a former presence in South Korea.
Trades
EB Games offers cash or store credit in exchange for traded video games, DVDs, video game systems, and video game accessories. However, EB Games offers cash at 20% less than the amount it would be in store credit.