By Thomas Lee, Star Tribune
“Best Buy founder Richard Schulze failed Thursday to make a bid to acquire the company, and negotiations for Schulze to return to the board of directors also collapsed.
Schulze was facing a deadline Thursday to make a formal offer to buy the company. Instead he spent most of the day trying to negotiate ways to expand his partial control of the board with the help of one his investors, according to sources close to the situation.”
By Thomas Lee, Star Tribune
“Best Buy Co. said Tuesday that it has laid off 400 employees at its corporate headquarters in Richfield, the first major salvo in CEO Hubert Joly’s campaign to transform the lumbering $50 billion giant into a more nimble retailer equally at home in malls and cyberspace.
Joly’s effort comes amid a crucial turning point in the company’s 47-year history as founder Richard Schulze faces a Thursday deadline to make an offer to buy the company. Schulze’s decision will have profound consequences on the future of Best Buy, which is only starting to revive itself after losing much ground over the past few years to online retailers such as Amazon.”
Via News Release
“MINNEAPOLIS, February 26, 2013 – Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) today confirmed that it has, as part of its Renew Blue transformation efforts, eliminated approximately $150 million in SG&A costs, including an approximate 400 person reduction in employee headcount at its headquarters.
The majority of these savings come from non-salary expenses. This initial reduction has been achieved by enhancing the focus on the company’s core business, removing management layers and eliminating operational inefficiencies.”
By Dhanya Skariachan and Jessica Toonkel and Olivia Oran
“(Reuters) – Best Buy Co Inc founder Richard Schulze may scrap a buyout bid and instead line up investors to take a minority position in the electronics retailer, sources familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.
The latest twist in Schulze’s months-long quest came two weeks before the deadline set by Best Buy for him to make a bid for the company he founded in 1966.”
By Alistair Barr, Reuters
“Jan 10 (Reuters) – Best Buy Co, the world’s largest electronics retailer, said its online sales have increased in certain markets as arch rival Amazon.com Inc collects tax on purchases in more states.
“In California, Texas and Pennsylvania where Amazon.com recently started collecting tax, it is very early, but Best Buy has seen a 4 to 6 percent increase in online sales observed in aggregate versus the rest of the chain,” spokeswoman Amy von Walter wrote in an email to Reuters.”
By Alyson Shontell, Business Insider
“LivingSocial has a new Chief Marketing Officer. It has hired Best Buy’s former CMO and Executive Vice President, Barry Judge, who will now oversee all of the daily deal site’s online and offline advertising, brand management, social media and more.
His mission is to help LivingSocial expand further internationally. Judge spent more than a decade at Best Buy. He joined in 1999 when it was just launching BestBuy.com and became CMO in 2008.”
By Thomas Lee, Star Tribune
“Best Buy Co. Inc. board of directors G. “Mike” Mikan and Matthew Paull will step down from their posts, the company said in a regulatory document filed Monday.
Paull and Mikan, along with current board chairman Hatim Tyabji, were among the directors who pushed last spring for Best Buy founder Richard Schulze to be removed from the board. Since then, Schulze has been trying to acquire the struggling consumer electronics retailer and has until the end of February to make what is expected to be a multi-billion-dollar offer for the company.”
Via News Release
“MINNEAPOLIS – Dec. 19, 2012 — Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) announced today that Stephen Gillett, executive vice president and president, Best Buy Digital, is leaving the business to pursue other career opportunities at a leading technology company [Symantec], where he currently serves on the Board of Directors.
Gillett’s responsibilities have been re-assigned to senior executives across the company, including the company’s Chief Administrative and Chief Financial Officer, Sharon McCollam, its President of Online and Global E-Commerce, Scott Durchslag and Shawn Score, senior vice president of U.S. Retail.”
By Leena Rao, TechCrunch
“Score one for the small guys. Startup TechForward just won a huge lawsuit against electronics retailer Best Buy over misappropriated trade secrets. The judge has awarded TechForward $22 million in damages, as well as another $5 million in punitive damages.
Here’s the background. In 2009, Best Buy and TechForward, which has raised money from First Round Capital and NEA, engaged in a trial program of TechForward’s Guaranteed Buyback Plan in a number of Best Buy Stores. TechForward has done similar deals with other big-name retailers as well.”
By Leslie Brooks Suzakamo, St. Paul Pioneer Press
“Best Buy says its website got tripped up Monday, Nov.19, trying to calculate some of the sales taxes on Black Friday specials that it offers online ahead of time for its Reward Zone customers, and that caused long waits in the online checkout lines.
“The site continued to perform well in terms of traffic,” Best Buy spokeswoman Amy Von Walter said, emphasizing that the website never crashed.”
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