Two new potential buyers for GAME appear

[garyopa]

Hilco and OpCapita interested in the retailer



Apart from Gamestop, two new companies are interested in acquire GAME business

Yesterday, we were informing you about GAME put up for sale and Gamestop sounding as the more interested company for buying their business. Today, two more companies expressed interest in the retailer. They are Hilco, looking for Spanish and Australian arm and OpCapita (Comet), wanting the UK part of the company.

According to MCV:

Hilco is a retail restructuring company and is reportedly looking at GAME’s international assets including its Spanish and Australian stores. The UK business is not said to be of interest to the firm.

Closer to home, OpCapita is said to be eying up GAME’s UK assets. The company should be known to the games industry following its acquisition of Comet last year for the princely sum of £2.

The potential “synergy” between Comet and GAME is said to be the basis of its appeal, though the obvious question to ask is whether that could potentially see an OpCapita acquired GAME moving away from purely video games sales.

Financial firm Rothschild, which was originally tasked with finding a buyer for GAME’s international operations, is currently involved in efforts to sell the whole company.

What all potential buyers will be aware of, however, is GAME’s tumbling share price. Any buyer will want to ait until the company is worth as little as possible before making a move.

Having fallen to just 0.5p yesterday, GAME’s shares are currently trading for 1.2p.

The most likely outcome at this stage is a purchase post-administration, which could possibly occur as early as this week. This leaves staff in a nervous situation – though an acquisition of some sort is very likely, there are no guarantees concerning which company assets will be saved and which will be ditched. Gamestation seems particularly vulnerable.

NEWS SOURCE: Hilco and Opcapita linked to GAME acquisition (via) MCV UK

Our thanks to 'Kaos2K' for this GAME status update!

[billysastard]

went into game today, it was like a funeral parlor, no customers, barely any up to date games just a stack of skyrim guides (at silly prices not cheap) and frankly no bargains although some new titles were still cheaper than pre owned so they still havent learned that lesson (bulletstorm new £1.99, bulletstorm pre owned *NO DLC* £4.99), i seriously couldnt find a single thing across every format that i didnt already own or could buy for a lower price elsewhere, staff themselves almost seemed resigned to loosing their jobs which is a pity. grainger and cex did say that game staff had been buying up anything worth buying at game and selling them as preowned in their stores.

[Diztructor]

went into game today, it was like a funeral parlor, no customers, barely any up to date games just a stack of skyrim guides (at silly prices not cheap) and frankly no bargains although some new titles were still cheaper than pre owned so they still havent learned that lesson (bulletstorm new £1.99, bulletstorm pre owned *NO DLC* £4.99), i seriously couldnt find a single thing across every format that i didnt already own or could buy for a lower price elsewhere, staff themselves almost seemed resigned to loosing their jobs which is a pity. grainger and cex did say that game staff had been buying up anything worth buying at game and selling them as preowned in their stores.

now think of those poor bastardz that pre ordered ME3 and game failed to provide and then issued a credit note.... a credit note to buy what??

[billysastard]

now think of those poor bastardz that pre ordered ME3 and game failed to provide and then issued a credit note.... a credit note to buy what??

lol indeed.

not just me3 but all ubisoft vita games at launch and those who pre ordered the last story LE and then just got an "order not available" or even those who pre ordered ff13 (or the CE) and went to collect them on launch day only to be told "sorry, our stock hasnt arrived, can you try again tomorrow", well, in a word, NO, got ff13 from grainger, days later got ff13 CE from game (i guess most people just said no) and only managed to get last story LE yesterday (grainger again) they had to track a copy down for me.

last story is great game but a huge nintendo "fail" when it comes to what you get, guess thats down to not doing many LE's but seriously content was ok, presentation was ok but way too much crap (see below)

large, sturdy outer carton with shelf hanging tab (why?)
game with english instructions in a standard nintendo type wii plastic case with custom cover but eu ratings not uk
thin card box containing a cd case with game music and a cd case sized hardback art book (whole book same thickness as a cd case)
empty steelbook case with slots for 2 discs (game + music cd?)
a supplemental instruction manual (game manual sized) that was thicker than most game guides, hundreds of pages, none of which were in english.

seriously why not just make a smaller box with just the steelbook containing game, manual and music (like zelda LE was in a plastic case) and a decent sized artbook? i mean how crazy is that, the only positive i can think of is that at least it has a manual unlike gears of war 3 CE (which just had a leaflet containing a url that didnt work) or cod:mw3 HE which just contained a lot of air.

[MadonnaProject]

ugh comet is awful.