EB Games bottom line hit by acquisition costs

US videogames specialist retailer EB Games has announced that its profits for the June quarter fell by almost 60 per cent year on year due to higher than expected costs related to corporate acquisitions.

The firm's revenues were actually up to $448.2 million, from $361.9 million in the same period last year, thanks to the strong performance of products including EA's NCAA Football 2006, LucasArts' Star Wars Episode III and Nintendo's Pokemon Emerald.

Like for like sales across the company's stores also rose by 2.6 per cent, while gross margin was up to 30.3 per cent from 29.5 per cent last year - but net income plummeted from $3.9 million last year to a mere $1.6 million.

The bulk of the decline in profits is attributed to massive costs associated with the acquisition of Spanish retailer Jump, which operates 138 retail outlets across Spain mostly focused on PC software and hardware, which are being updated with the introduction of videogames items.

However, there was also a major charge against the company in terms of the pending merger between GameStop and EB Games, which will take place in October and will see EB being swallowed by former rival GameStop.