GameStop Completes $950 Million Investor Offering

U.S. game retailer GameStop has announced that, on September 28th, it successfully completed the sale of $300 million in Senior Floating Rate Notes and $650 million in Senior Notes in the company to investors. The funding, effectively a long-term loan until 2011-2012, was made in order to help fund its recently regulator-approved merger with fellow retailer Electronics Boutique. Meetings of both GameStop and Electronics Boutique stockholders to approve the business combination are scheduled for October 6, 2005. In addition, the company announced a return policy if the merger does not take place by the end of next month: "The gross proceeds of the offering were placed into escrow and will be released to the issuers, less applicable discounts, in connection with the closing of the business combination. In the event the business combination does not close by October 31, 2005, the notes will be redeemed." If completed, the merger between GameStop and EB would create a single company representing 20 to 30 percent of the overall market for video game products in the United States - according to reports, this would include a combined total of 3,800 stories, with 3,200 of them in the U.S., and nearly $4 billion in yearly revenue.