VSDA, IEMA merger official

New organization called Entertainment Merchants Assn.

By Paul Sweeting -- Video Business, 5/23/2006

MAY 23 | The Video Software Dealers Assn. is no more, at least in name.

Following the group’s merger with the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Assn., which became official Tuesday, the organization will be rechristened the Entertainment Merchants Assn. (EMA).

The new organization will represent more than 1,000 retailers, operating more than 20,000 store fronts.

“The [EMA] brings together the leaders in home video and videogame retailing and distribution,” VSDA chairman Bob Geistman said in a statement. “By leveraging the strengths of each sector, we will have a trade association that is more efficient, more effective and more influential than either IEMA or VSDA would have been had they continued as separate organizations.”

EMA will be headquartered at VSDA’s current offices in Encino, Calif. VSDA president Bo Andersen was named president of the new, merged association. All other current VSDA staffers also will make the transition.

IEMA head Hal Halpin will serve as a consultant to the group through the transition. IEMA, which was managed by The Crest Group, had no direct employees of its own.

The two boards of directors will be merged into a single body, although the old IEMA and VSDA boards might continue to meet separately to deal with issues particular to one group of retailers, EMA VP of public affairs Sean Bersell said.

“The merger of these two organizations makes eminently good sense,” IEMA chairman Rick Vergara said. “Home video retailers and videogame retailers deal with identical media, have similar operational concerns and face the same public policy issues.”

Although the new name becomes official this week, some ongoing operations will continue under the old banners for the time being, Bersell said.

Chief among those is VSDA’s Home Entertainment 2006 tradeshow, which will go on in July without a name change.

“Things were too far down the road to change the name of the convention at this point,” Bersell said.

The merger adds IEMA’s 29 member retailers, including retail giants such as Wal-Mart, Target and Circuit City, to VSDA’s membership rolls. Many IEMA members, however, were already involved with VSDA.

Earlier this year, the two groups had jointly hired a lobbyist in Washington, DC, Stuart Spencer, to work on federal legislative and regulatory issues.

The groups also have a long record of cooperating on the state legislative level, where as many as 25 bills to restrict minors’ access to certain videogames have been introduced in 2006.