subsidiary genre clothing skateboarding founded 1995 founder sam baio headquarters toronto ontario canada key people michael gold & michael roden ceo revenue 195.3 million 2006 1 owner michael gold & michael roden number of employees 1 000 employees 2005 2 parent ym inc. website www.west49.com west 49 store west 49 inc. is a canadian specialty retailer of fashion and apparel footwear accessories and equipment related to the action sports lifestyle . the retailer operates more than 100 stores across the country 1 and is canada s largest skateboard and snowboard chain . in 2005 it was ranked the 82nd fastest growing company in canada . 4 5 west 49 inc. operates stores under several names west 49 billabong element canada and amnesia arsenic . 1 on november 4 2013 ym inc. was confirmed as the new parent company of the retail chain . 6 contents 1 history 2 brands 3 references 4 external links history edit west 49 was established in 1995 by ceo sam baio who opened three stores in ontario canada . as of 2005 the company operated 65 locations in seven provinces employed nearly 1 000 employees and reported us 86 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending january 29 2005 . 7 starting in 2001 west 49 sponsored and hosted an annual international skate event the west 49 canadian open . in 2005 microsoft joined as a co sponsor . 8 the west 49 canadian open is not on the world cup skateboarding event schedule for 2007 9 and as of 2013 is no longer active as an annual skateboarding contest event . on november 2 2009 west 49 ambition skatecamp premiered on bite tv . 10 the show follows eight young amateur skateboarders as they vie for a grand prize that includes a profile in sbc skateboard magazine and a chance to compete in the maloof money cup a professional skateboarding competition . along with the placement of the chain s name in the show s title west 49 is featured in product and logo shots throughout the series . 11 two retailers u.s. based zumiez and australian based billabong engaged in a bidding war to take over the company . in july 2010 zumiez decided to end its takeover bid clearing the way for billabong to acquire west 49 . 12 on august 24 2010 it was announced that shareholders had approved the sale . 13 in september 2013 billabong started the process of finding a new buyer for the retail chain due to the internal financial problems of the company . 14 billabong s sale of the west 49 retail chain was announced on november 4 2013 with fashion retailer ym inc. identified as the buyer . west 49 will be sold for approximately cad 9 11 million after billabong originally paid cad 99 million in 2010 . the ownership of 92 west 49 retail stores located across canada will be transferred through the deal . 6 brands edit the chain carries brands such as vans dc billabong element blind roxy circa c1rca nixon burton emerica plan b volcom diamond supply co. neff rvca altamont sector 9 fox girl von zipper and amnesia inc. 7 in addition to its own clothing line west 49 . 15 references edit a b c west 49 inc. reports fourth quarter sales cnx marketlink 2007 02 07 clothing chains tailor stores to customers business edge news magazine 2005 08 12 retrieved 2007 03 27 company profile for west 49 inc ca ; wxx . retrieved 2008 10 17 . the secret of sam s success strategy august 2004 profit 100 2005 canada business online retrieved 2007 03 27 a b kailee bradstreet 4 november 2013 . billabong announces details of west 49 sale . transworld business . grindmedia . retrieved 5 november 2013 . a b http www.west49.monstermediaworks.ca en one community.html microsoft canada teams up with the west 49 canadian open battle of the brands 2005 08 16 world cup skateboarding 2007 event schedule west 49 on bite tv bite tv marketing magazine marketing magazine ambition skatecamp story west 49 zumiez won t trump billabong takeover offer . toronto sun . sun media . july 14 2010 . retrieved 2010 07 15 . west 49 stockholders accept billabong bid . cbc news . august 24 2010 . retrieved 2010 08 26 . rebecca urban 21 september 2013 . billabong hushed up nixon offload . the australian . retrieved 23 september 2013 . melanie chambers 12 august 2005 . clothing chains tailor stores to customers . business edge . business edge . retrieved 23 september 2013 . external links edit west 49 1 2 west 49 blog retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title west 49 & oldid 717914343 categories canadian brandsclothing retailers of canadahidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 30 april 2016 at 13 45 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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