Last week, news swirled that mall mecca for all-things-punk Hot Topic was looking to acquire ThinkGeek, the online retailer for all-things-geek. In a twist, gaming retailer GameStop has stepped in and says it will instead acquire ThinkGeek, paying Hot Topic off for its troubles.
In a press release, GameStop says it will purchase Geeknet Inc., the parent company of ThinkGeek, for $20 a share (versus Hot Topic’s offer of $17.50 a share.) That gives the deal an “equity value of approximately $140 million, including $37 million of cash and cash equivalents as of March 31, 2015.”
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The suggestion that Hot Topic was about to acquire ThinkGeek was met with mixed reactions last week. While many people were simply amused by the unexpected tie-up, others believed the retailer would commodify geek interests in the same way it did punk culture.
ThinkGeek becoming a GameStop property makes a little more sense, as many of its products are appeal to the same gaming audience. Given GameStop’s plans to start selling retro games again, we can only imagine the kinds of throwback collectables we’ll see on offer on both ThinkGeek.com and the GameStop retail store.
Assuming no further interruptions, the GameStop acquisition is expected to close by the end of Quarter 2.
➤ GameStop Corp. Announces Agreement to Acquire Geeknet, Inc.
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