Distributors, iEN Talk About Big Merger
To say last Thursday's news flash about the sale of three of the game industry's top five distributors -- Berkeley TopLine, Zocchi Distributors, and Alliance (itself the product of a merger last year between The Armory and Chessex) to iEntertainment Network, an Internet company specializing in online computer games and e-commerce caused a major panic attack in the game industry would be an understatement.The initial reaction, fueled by the Chicken Littles of the Internet, was that the new distribution entity (called "BZA" in the iEN announcement) would take advantage of their new partner's Internet technology to go direct to consumers over the web. A press release issued late Friday specifically to retailers said that while BZA was planning to use the Internet extensively, it would strictly be business-to-business, for retailers only.
Pyramid interviews with many of the principals confirmed that position. Dave Cooke of Alliance said, "The plan that we have for the long term is to provide our brick-and-mortar stores with the opportunity to compete on a more even level with the e-commerce to consumer sites that are out there." And, "The moves we're making are to enhance our abilities to serve retailers across the board, whether it be providing new technologies, providing better selections of products, better fill rates, more efficient operational procedures -- these are all goals that we have that we feel like we're going to be much . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: August 23, 1999
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