GameStopGameStop, the globally recognised US video game retailer, is apparently a matter of weeks away from announcing its sale to another company.
The company announced in June 2018 that it was exploring the possibility of selling itself following a fairly tough run, in part thanks to the rise of digital game sales.
GameStopThe Wall Street Journal now reports that at least two companies are currently vying for GameStop, and we could learn of a final deal by mid February. The two interested parties named in the report are private equity companies Sycamore Partners and Apollo Global Management.
Sycamore, Apollo, and GameStop all refused to comment on the current dealings when approached by the WSJ. Sycamore specialises in consumer and retail investment.
Apollo meanwhile, according to co-president and lead partner Scott Kleinman, look for investment opportunities that others are “unwilling or unable to figure out.”
This means both interested parties could reasonably take on GameStop, but they’ll still need to address the inescapable issue that physical game sales continue to drop, while digital continues to rise.
GameStop CEO Paul Raines sadly passed away in March 2018 at 53. His replacement was Michael Mauler, who left after three months due to “personal reasons”. The current GameStop CEO is Shane Kim, who was the boss at Xbox during the 360 years.
GameStopClearly, this isn’t a great time for high street stores of any kind. UK music retailer HMV recently fell into administration for the second time in six years, despite significant restructuring.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.