Best Buy

Best Buy (BBY) on Friday announced that it did not receive an offer from founder Richard Schulze for a proposed buyout. Schulze originally planned to take Best Buy private for $24 to $26 a share last August, however he failed to secure financing and make a bid for the retail giant prior to the February 28th deadline. Talks between the two parties reportedly ended after Schulze and his private-equity investors sought three board seats in exchange for acquiring a minority stake in the company, according to Bloomberg. Best Buy will now continue to focus “on its transformation for the benefit of all of its stakeholders.”

Tired of losing sales to the likes of Amazon (AMZN), Best Buy (BBY) has made its online price-matching policy permanent. “Showrooming” — or, the practice of going to a store like Best Buy to look at products but then making an actual purchase online — has been a problem for brick and mortar retailers like Best Buy in recent years. The nationwide electronics seller has decided to combat the issue by revamping its price-matching policy. Instead of matching just brick and mortar retail stores, Best Buy will now also match the advertised prices of 19 major online competitors including Amazon. The retailer’s press release follows below. More →

Best Buy (BBY) on Friday reported sales results for the nine-week period ending on January 5th, 2013. The nation’s largest consumer electronics retailer said total revenue slid 1.4% year-over-year to $12.8 billion between October and January, but domestic comparable sales rose slightly and online sales grew by 10%. ”One of the first priorities of our Renew Blue strategy is to stabilize and then begin improving our comparable store sales,” Best Buy President and CEO Hubert Joly said. “During the most important period in the retail calendar – the holiday sales season – we were able to improve our Domestic comparable store sales trends compared to the performance of the last several quarters and continue our strong traffic growth in our online business. Our holiday selling strategy, backed by a compelling assortment, increased employee training and price match policy, allowed us to deliver these results.” Best Buy shares closed up 16.38%‎ at $14.21 on the news.

One of the more interesting companies to watch in 2013 is Best Buy (BBY), and the show started right from the get-go in 2013. As most people were getting ready to enjoy New Year’s Eve celebrations, this struggling retailer was busy confirming that two key board members were resigning, Reuters reported. Among those leaving Best Buy’s board of directors is G. Mike Mikan, who served as interim CEO between April and September this year after former CEO Brian Dunn resigned amid scandal. Director Matthew Paull is the second departure, and he is leaving in April following his retirement from the role of chief financial officer at McDonald’s in April 2008. Best Buy’s corporate policy indicates that directors must relinquish their board seats within five years of retiring from their primary careers. The struggling nationwide retailer now has four vacant seats on its board.

Reports surfaced last month that Best Buy (BBY) founder and former CEO Richard Schulze, who is trying to buy his former company, had asked the retailer for an extra 30 days to conduct due diligence before decided whether to make a bid. Schulze was said to be working with three private-equity firms to offer a more appealing proposal to the company and had also been interested to see how Best Buy performed over the holiday season. The retailer announced on Friday, however, that it has agreed to extend the founder’s deadline to February 28th. More →

Shares of Best Buy (BBY) tumbled on Tuesday following the company’s weaker-than-expected earnings report. The struggling consumer electronics retailer posted third-quarter results of $0.03 per share, well below Wall Street’s expectations of $0.12. Best Buy’s profit fell a whopping 94% from a year ago while sales fell 3.5% to $10.75 billion from $11.15 billion. CEO Hubert Joly was not pleased with the earnings, although he did note that Best Buy is “taking steps to rejuvenate its business.” More →