To Top Jim,
Nice to hear from you again TJ. Firestone mentioned in the CNBC interview that the latest word from Sega Japan is that they are trying to increase production to put 1.5M in the marketplace over the next year. Oh, and yes, I think it is fairly obvious that ELBO is earmarked to get the lions share of these future units. Afterall, Sega is going to allocate them to the people who are moving the product and Firestone indicates that waiting lists at EB will probably be a reality throughout next year. I thought he did a great job in the interview, especially since he had been in Vegas until 5:00am the previous morning helping out at a midnight madness launch out there and had to fly in on very short notice to give the interview. Forty years in retail and he is probably one of the hardest working guys in the company. He likes to lead by example and I understand he has the loyalty and respect of his top management people. He took over the reigns of the company when they were a fledgling, (something like 30 stores) and has been there ever since, helping to make them the dominant global force they are today in the gaming industry. I always research a company's management before investing my money and EB has top caliber management from Firestone, Griffith's, Levy, Panichello, right on down the line.
Yes I do think we will go higher between now and Christmas...how much is anybody's guess. I do think we will see all three analyst raising their earnings estimates and price targets as we get deeper into Q-3 and more sales information becomes available from the company. I think the next company announcements will probably deal with the re-launch of the all new ebworld.com site (supposedly much more attractive and user friendly), followed closely by the announcement of the opening of the new chain of EBkids stores. I haven't given up on the idea of a spin off of ebworld.com either. Firestone says they will do $16M in revenue this year, up 400% over last year and even if they only double for fiscal 2001...that would mean $32M added to 2001 revenue just from the webstore. As long as they continue to keep the site profitable, I think they will keep it as a division but if it begins to look like an infusion of capital is necessary (to build awareness and branding)...then I would look for the spin off with a possible stock dividend to holders of ELBO common shares. Just speculation on my part but something worth thinking about moving forward.
Anyway, good to hear from a long timer like myself.:-) I think we always knew that eventually the market would reward this company for its growth record and future prospects but it is still good when it actually happens.
Best regards
RBL |
