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Earnings Calls: 
GameStop Fourth Quarter Earnings Call
Author: Maclintosh Kuhlengisa
123jump.com
Last Update: 5:59 PM EDT March 19 2008


The video game and entertainment software retailer reported earnings of $189.8 million or $1.14 a share, up 46% over the prior year due to lower than expected foreign tax expense resulting from profitability in many European countries. The business is set up for the worldwide mass specialist set up as the firm sees growth opportunities in the U.S. and abroad as the firm is gaining more brand traction every year. The board approved an additional $130 million note repurchase program.

 
 
Key questions and answers from the fourth quarter earnings call conducted by GameStop Corp. on March 18, 2008.

Benjamin Schachter (UBS): How do you think internally of same-store growth?

David W. Carlson: We have always tried to talk about how people need to focus more on software growth than same-store growth. The industry works in such a manner that as the hardware prices come down over time, it puts pressure on the same-store comp number.

As the comp number comes down, typically software grows even faster and used software as well grows faster, and EPS growth will be inverse to your comp growth.

Daniel A. DeMatteo: As new software sales go up, trades go up as people trade in games and use it as currency to buy new video games. Over time these used software sales will approximately match new software sales.

We got into tournaments in our stores. We realized there is an opportunity to do that better and in a bigger way. We have built a prototype store out in the San Jose market. It’s going very well. We have several others slated for this year in other markets and we will continue to refine it as we see how it goes.

David Magee (Suntrust Robinson Humphrey): What have you assumed with the price cuts on the hardware side this year?

David W. Carlson: We have not assumed huge amounts of price cuts but we have assumed a couple. The PS2 is still selling well at $129. When we did our budget, we assumed there will be a cut to $99.

We are also making an assumption that both the Xbox and the PS3 have about a $50 price cut some time during the year, but again we have no knowledge or verification of any of those. We are not assuming any price cut on the Wii or the PSP at this point.

David Magee (Suntrust Robinson Humphrey): That would mean that the dollars would be up for the year on the hardware side?

David W. Carlson: That is definitely the case. The amount of hardware that we are going to sell is going to be more than 2007.

David Magee (Suntrust Robinson Humphrey): Is there anything with digital downloads that would give you pause about the retail models the next several years?

R. Richard Fontaine: There is going to be some application in terms of levels and there is going to be some downloading of very old albeit very good games that use far less memory.

Tony Wible (Citigroup): Could you update us on how penetrated you can be with the U.S. store base and have those targets changed with the gaming trend expanding?

R. Richard Fontaine: Yes, they absolutely have and to some degree, it has changed in direct proportion to the overall growth of the business and the tremendous change in the demographics.

We just had an updated version based upon some new metrics that we are using and our real estate people working with the brokers around the U.S. have come back and feel very comfortable using the current metric that there are additional 1,685 potential locations available yet for the GameStop model.

Tony Wible (Citigroup): Can you clarify a little bit more on your inventory expectations?

Daniel A. DeMatteo: Most of our supplies have improved. We are not seeing any problems with the PS3 and we should have a good stock of PS3s in place when Grand Theft Auto 4 launches, PS2 the same.

PSP, we are still anticipating shortages for the next several months. The Wii, we have been seeing increased flow but we still anticipate it is not going to meet demand potentially for the next two quarters. The Nintendo DS, we have received better flow and increasing allocations, so that has improved. And the Xbox 360, we have had increased allocations, so that has improved.

Arvind Bhatia (Sterne, Agee & Leach): Can you comment on why within the used play, pre-played category, gross margins were slightly down versus last year?

Daniel A. DeMatteo: The largest portion was the increase in refurbishment which drove the sales. The second reason is mix of used game sales, U.S., and international and the international is less developed than what we are here in the U.S..

Colin Sebastian (Lazard Capital Markets): In terms of your longer term expectations, when are you assuming that next generation of consoles might hit the market?

R. Richard Fontaine: We can start with the PlayStation 3 and to some degree a little bit less with the Xbox 360. The horsepower in those units is going to point to a much longer cycle with those. It is possible to believe that the PS3 and even the 360 could still be generating growth when we get out three, four, five, six years into the cycle.
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