Gamestop Buys Out Rhino Video Games
January 6th, 2007 by Steve Reddish in Articles, Business
Rhino Video Games, a chain of video game retail stores mainly located in the southeastern portion of the USA, has official been bought out by GameStop. There are over 70 Rhino Video Game stores open, and they were all previously owned by Blockbuster. GameStop previously merged with the other major video game retailer in the USA, EB Games. Now, they own nearly all of the video game speciality shops in the United States. Considering your take on GameStop, this is either great news, or really bad news. Press release after the jump.
Blockbuster Reaches Agreement to Sell Rhino Video Games to GameStop
DALLAS, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI - News, BBI.B - News) today announced it has reached a definitive agreement for the sale of its Rhino Video Games chain to GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME - News, GME.B - News) for an undisclosed price. The sale is expected to close by the end of January.
Rhino Video Games is a regional retail chain specializing in buying, selling and trading video games. Rhino currently has 72 stores located in the Southeastern U.S. including Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
John Antioco, Blockbuster Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Today’s announcement is in line with our goal to maintain focus on our Blockbuster-branded assets. We wish the Rhino concept ongoing success under its new ownership, and while games remain an integral part of our Blockbuster business, we will continue to focus on growing our overall share of the video rental market both through our stores and through BLOCKBUSTER Total Access(TM), which gives our online subscribers the option of returning their DVDs through the mail or exchanging them at a participating BLOCKBUSTER® store for free in-store movie rentals.”
R. Richard Fontaine, GameStop Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “The integration of the Rhino group into the growing portfolio of GameStop stores will result in operating synergies while being accretive to earnings. The location of most Rhino stores do not overlap existing GameStop sites, and primarily serve secondary and tertiary markets where we have been very successful. Furthermore, the Rhino business model, and a very game oriented management team, will fit seamlessly into the GameStop culture.”
Tags: Articles, Business
January 6th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
i assume its not very good news since they have less competition now and can put the price on anything they want.
January 6th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
When did GS start emulating the EA business model?
January 7th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
This is horrible!
Rhino’s had so much more to offer. The one I go to has a great selection of old console games and if they become anything like GameStop I’ll have to resort to GameForce, which isn’t that great, or I’ll be forced to go on E-Bay.
January 8th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
this suxx. these guys are gonna practically monopolize the video game retail business.
January 9th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
yeah we been sold out
by our leaders
January 9th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Out here on the west coast we still have Gamecrazy which is Hollywood Videos game store and they are determined to put up a fight against the Gamespot/EB Games juggernaut and for the most part they do pretty well. I have never seen a Rhino store out here on the west coast … I guess they were experimenting to see if it could work before they dedicated the money to introducing them out here.