GAME up for sale

[EvilBoris]

Today the Sunday Times has reported that GAME group has put itself up for sale to avoid going into administration.

Its quarterly rent bill is due in a fortnight and failure to pay its landlords could push it into administration, jeopardising 10,000 jobs and wiping out investors.

This ties in with reports of the CEO's speech to Senior management that they had 2 weeks left to turn things around.
Advisory firm Rothschild has been appointed to find a buyer for the business, completing a deal in such a short time-frame will be difficult.

Deloitte has been lined up to handle any insolvency process which could see Game’s UK operations put through a pre-pack administration in order for some or all of its estate to be sold on quickly.

GAME have declined to comment (they probably don't work sundays like their stores) so it's not 100% confirmed just yet. I think we all could see it heading this way.

Gamespot have shown interest in the Spanish stores so far.
We will have to see what happens, but please be sensitive to the staff who are going through a stressful time at the moment.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/11/game-group-idUSL5E8EB23S20120311

[MisterBubbles]

The start of the End... lets hope somebody buys something, but if they do, store closures and job cuts are certain, lets hope its as painless as possible.

[Daragon]

Hopefully Gamespot/stop/pots/sotp stay the fudge away from the UK stores.

As I've said before, would rather Game/Gamestation didn't exist than it being taken over by them!

[ETC]

From what I have read Game basically are a nicer less pushy version of GameStop that will be a scary prospect if they buy them up adding in subscriptions as well as all of the stuff already offered having said whoever keeps the most employees = win in my eyes sure if GameStop buy them I wont go in but I'm sure plenty will, wonder of virgin fancy getting back in to videogames retail they could team it up with the mobile phone, media business might work?

[importaku]

From what I have read Game basically are a nicer less pushy version of GameStop

Gamestop are far worse they do some shocking stuff like gut copies of old games & throw out the boxes & manuals to save shop shelf space. Dumpster diving at gamestops is a good way of getting missing stuff Americans just love doing it

[EvilBoris]

I can't imagine they are keen to go back into any retail after the failure of virgin megastores

[Silanda]

I can't imagine they are keen to go back into any retail after the failure of virgin megastores

I couldn't imagine them buying Game either but they'd be quite well placed to do so. They still have a recognised brand, and having already failed in the retail market they should be aware of the potential points of failure for the business. If they scaled down the business and took it out of public ownership there is still room for success. This won't happen though, and I can't see any sale of the company as a whole succeeding when potential suitors could just take the good pieces if Game went into administration.

[EvilBoris]

Indeed, should they go into administration, 600 retail units already fitted for being a games shop are going to come flooding onto the market, landlords and property owners are not going to want those to be sitting around doing nothing.

Another Company could grab all the best locations without having to worry about TUPE agreements and the like

[SUMIRE]

They will end up being turned into Pound Land shops judging by the state of the current high street.

[robrymond]

Potentially that's me out of my job. We are told to be silent but when the **** hits the fan you can't help feel annoyed.

[nakamura]

Well I can't imagine they will go for much as they have pretty much dumped stock for little cash!

[Dogg Thang]

We should do a whip round and buy it. Sell good games, imports, VGM CDs and a bunch of other stuff for the two weeks we're in business. It would rock.

[EvilBoris]

The only problem is, everyone here would insist on selling everything for below cost, so we'd go out of business too!

[Family Fry]

Tell you now I wouldn't pay any more than ?15 for anything.

[BaronSqwelch]

Shame the games biz isn't like football....get some lunatic multi billionaire to step in.

Cant honestly say I care a damn about GAME. But Gamestation, especially the lads and ladette in my local, will be very sad to see go. But who buys shops nowadays?? Buy the name and go online only is probably the outcome so assuming you are not a warehouse order picker its not much to hope for.