ELBO's press release...for anyone that didn't get to read it.
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Tuesday June 22, 1:53 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Electronics Boutique Holdings Corp.
Electronics Boutique Discusses Record Year and Strong Start to Fiscal 2000 At First Annual Meeting of Shareholders
-- First EBKIDS Store Slated to Open September '99 -- Sega Dreamcast Presales Exceeding Expectations
WEST CHESTER, Pa., June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Electronics Boutique Holdings Corp. (Nasdaq: ELBO - news), the world's largest specialty retailer of electronic games, today held its first annual meeting of shareholders. Following a record year for fiscal 1999 in which pro forma net income increased 72% to $20.1 million, the Company posted a strong start to fiscal 2000. Financial results for the previously announced first quarter, which ended on May 1, 1999, included a 60% increase in pro forma net income, as well as an 80 basis point improvement in gross margin. The gross margin improvement was driven by triple digit growth in Game Boy sales and sales of the hugely successful Pokemon line of cards and toys.
Joseph J. Firestone, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, ''We are extremely proud of the success we have achieved to date and equally excited about our future. There is a very strong line up of Sony PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy and PC games scheduled for release between September and December, which we expect to positively benefit fiscal 2000 third and fourth quarter sales. Additionally, presales for the Sega Dreamcast system have at this point surpassed the pace of any previous hardware launch. The Dreamcast launch is scheduled for September 9, 1999, and we are anticipating record sales for that week and month in conjunction with the release.''
Mr. Firestone continued, ''We are also very encouraged about the prospects for our EB KIDS stores. Many real estate developers have shown enormous interest in the educational and violence free platforms this concept will foster.''
Seth Levy, President of EBWorld.com and Senior Vice President for EB said, ''We are very pleased with the steady gain in sales and traffic to the site, and our repeat customer percentage exceeded our expectations in the month of May. These indicators confirm that EBWorld.com not only competes, but can dominate as an e-retailer of entertainment software and related products. Sales generated from EBWorld.com quadrupled to $1.5 million in the first quarter compared with the prior year period, keeping us on track to reach our goal of $16.0 million for fiscal 2000.''
The Company announced today that its Electronics Boutique store-opening plan is on schedule and it anticipates adding up to 100 net new stores worldwide for fiscal 2000. The first EB KIDS prototype store is slated to open in the Garden State Plaza Mall, located in Paramus, N.J., this coming September.
Also at today's meeting, shareholders reelected Susan Y. Kim and Stanley Steinberg to serve as Directors until the 2002 annual meeting.
Electronics Boutique is the leading specialty retailer of video and computer games and also sells video game hardware, PC productivity software and accessories. The company currently operates 554 stores in 45 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Australia and South Korea, primarily under the names Electronics Boutique and Stop 'N Save Software. The company has also established a separate e-commerce division, EBWorld.com, Inc., to accelerate the growth of its Internet business. During fiscal 1999, there were more than 10 million visits to the company's website at ebworld.com .
(safe harbor not copied but appeared in original text)
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Good luck,
RBL |
