Report: Best Buy Might Buy GameStop

So Circuit City lost to the competition and now Best Buy wants to take out the single biggest game competitor, GameStop. Sure GameStop isn't the most popular of places among readers here from what I've gathered in other articles but they have never treated me wrongly. And Best Buy's prices and crap and will continue to worse as the competition gets eaten up by the big fish.

Newegg forever.

There is always Newegg, Amazon and Steam.

haha does that mean i get staff price at game stop now as well? (i work at future shop). but seriously though i think best buy is becoming a monopoly in both electronic retail and games.

Actually I purchase most of my games from amazon.

Ack! I can't think of any way that this would benefit consumers. I have no major problems with Gamestop the way it is, so I'd have to vote 'nay'.

Not a huge issue for me. I haven't been inside a gamestop store in years. Half.com is the place to go for buying and selling games.

No way, my wife works for gamestop. This would be terrible considering the comments stemming from BestBuy employees about their working conditions.

I think It's dumb. They should focus on creating an online distribution system, or teaming up with Steam. The games's brick and mortar shops will slowly die in like 10-20 years time.

Well, I'm not sanguine about such a merger. However, as Pei-chen pointed out, there are alternatives. Newegg and Amazon for mail-order. Walmart for in-town purchase. Steam for online-download purchase.

Wonder if Best Buy is doing this as a retaliation to Wal-Mart for picking up their electronics section.

Wasn't there a quote from Wal Mart saying they wanted to replace Circuit City and Best Buy?

My vote is Nay! Simply cause I would like the option of choosing who to do my business with. With all these companies out there merging or taking over it cuts into consumers options. Pretty soon, if this keeps up, I and others will not have an option. The worst thing I can think of in this world is not having a choice.

NOOOOOOOOOOO

I think this is bad news... Best Buy screws up pre-orders and don't do crap about it. "Oh well, we don't have it"...I had all but written them off (for games) after the 3rd time. Gamestop has never disappointed me with anything. Hope its more of a merger and they are still an independent branch or something.

Nay. Enough competition has already disappeared.

WOW, a quick way to make Gamestop even more craptastic.

Ya Best Buy and GameStop...a perfect match in company greed, they both overcharge and have low level personnel, BUT they must have good management/advertising to be doing so well.

Oh ya remember the movie WALL-E? BUY-N-LARGE ya i think were headed that way like one or two huge conglomerates.

I don't see any reason that this would be a good thing...
If they didn't buy them it would just keep competition going.

Welcome to World 2.0, everybody. Where physical business's new competition is Internet. There's no such thing as "BBY vs CCY" it's not, Big-Box retail vs. Convenient, bought-in-bulk online orders. I like it, personally. But, until shipping and product transportation increases it's sophistication, there will always be a place for big-box.

Another one bites the dust.

I hear a lot of bad stuff about GameStop, and I've seen it completely take over all the other video game shops in town (literally, bought them out then moved into their spaces). There would be little love lost if GS was bought out and ceased being an independent entity for me. On the other hand, BestBuy isn't really much better from a consumer standpoint, and reducing competition through buy-outs is one of the problems I had with GS in the first place.

Meh. Couldn't happen to a nicer company, but I still don't like it.

Gamestop is part of Barnes and Noble booksellers currently - theres been no news so far to stockholders about any sell-off of it. And honestly, owning Gamestop is a great thing for B&N - between GameStop and B&N stores, the have distribution outlets for all major types of media - print, music, film, and video games. B&N is in no kind of financial trouble - no store closings, no mass layoffs. I can't see any evidence that this is anything more than a colorful rumor. B&N is currently adding more integration in BN.com for Gamestop materials - an expense that would be unlikely in the face of an upcoming sell-off.

I agree that B & M stores are out of date. GoGamer works well for me.

I've worked at both for years. They run VERY different. GS thinks that upper management is why it makes all its money. BB undrestands that its employee's that make the money. Either way, both suck ass at retaining employees and both are horrible and holdinig the right people responsible. The profit margin in used games will KILLLLLLLLLLLLL your new IP's FYI

Barnes and Nobles sold their stake in gamestop 10 years ago.... time to get updated news bud.

Well that's bad. Personally I don't like Gamestop, but lots of gamers do. Even so Best Buy could gain the ability to dictate which games sell, and which don't if they control enough of the market and advertise aggressively. Influencing what games sell influences what gets developed, and I don't know about you but I sure don't want the management of Best Buy doing that .

It kind of doesn't matter at this point. If current trends continue the next game system out the door will be internet connected with downloadable games being a primary vehicle.

Best Buy purchasing GS right now would just speed up the dismise of GS and other type of outlets like GS.

First of all, the "spin-off" you are talking about happened 5 years ago, not 10. It was done so that GS's debts (which were substantial after aquiring the debts from several smaller companies they absorbed) would not directly impact B&N. Secondly, the management between the two are in many cases the same people. The companies retain a financial connection, with an amount of Gamestop assets being owned by Barnes and Noble. B&N is integrating Gamestop products and services into BN.com. The connection between the two companies is tighter than many other wholly owned subsidiaries. Gamestop information and financial reports of frequently issued to B&N stockholders and employees alike, and vice versa. Its safe to say, that without the blessing of B&N, the aquisition of GS by Best Buy is an errant rumor at best. It behooves a poster to fact check, and that doesn't include looking it up on wikipedia.

I think that Gamestop will remain as it is unless Best Buy could pull off a hostile takeover and I doubt that they could.

Wow. I can't remember the last time I bought a game. But a trip to the mall always comes with a little GameStop window-shopping to plan my next download. And there's nothing Best Buy could offer me that I wouldn't get online or at evil Walmart. So I guess I don't care, but I always had a soft spot in my heart for Electronics Boutique. Just another nail in the coffin of my youth.

This is wrong. I hate Best Buy, how could have people let them get so out of hand? Their service plans are total ripoffs (the ones for CompUSA were much better), they tell their workers to lie to customers. I just go to Fry's now, their the better of both evils. The thing I like about Game Stop (which will probably stop if Best Buy buys them), is I can buy used 360 games and if I don't like one or two I can bring them back in a certain amount of time.