All posts tagged ‘Best Buy’
by Peter Kafka, Managing Editor, Silicon Alley Insider
Looks like Chris Gorog really was serious about selling off perennially troubled Napster, after all. He’s selling the company to Best Buy for $121 million. That’s $2.65 per share, which works out to be $54 million net of cash.
The good news for Napster shareholders is that Best Buy is paying twice Friday’s closing price. The bad news, for anyone who’s held the stock for any length of time: A year ago NAPS was trading above $3.
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by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's
Best Buy (BBY) this morning announced a deal to buy online music site Napster (NAPS) for $2.65 a share in cash. That comes to $121 million, or $54 million net of Napster’s $67 million in cash and short-term investments as of June 30. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Best Buy said it signed employment agreements with Napster CEO Chris Gorog and other key senior managers of the company to stay on after completion of the deal.
Napster had revenue in the March 2008 fiscal year of $127.5 million, with a loss of $16.5 million. Best Buy will use cash on hand to complete the deal.
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by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Piper Jaffray analyst Mitchell Kaiser this morning cut his rating on Best Buy (BBY) shares to Neutral from Buy, and chopped his price target on the stock to $49 from $54. “We are concerned about gross margin erosion in the home theater department as a result of what we expect will be significant flat panel TV price declines in the coming months,” Kaiser writes.
Kaiser says he is not making a negative call on Q2; in fact, he increased his estimate for the quarter to 59 cents, from 57 cents. But he writes that “channel checks … have revealed weak consumer demand for large flat panel TVs during the summer months and the early weeks of the important fall selling season.” He adds that the weak demand has created excess inventory “throughout the supply chain” that will likely have “negative gross margin implications” for the next two quarters. He trimmed his FY ‘09 EPS estimate to $3.30 from $3.37.
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by Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Is AT&T (T) ready to take on Best Buy (BBY)? The phone company announced today that it will offer a technical support team providing in-home service for “virtually any home technology or entertainment need.” (Makes one chortle, just a little, to think about the “entertainment needs” AT&T might service in one’s home.) The offering is obviously competition for Best Buy’s Geek Squad technical support operation.
AT&T says it will help consumers configure computers, set up networking, install home theaters and mount TVs. “ConnecTech” as it’s called, will be available in the 50 States. On its Web page, ConnecTech lists prices ranging from $69 for basic troubleshooting of your PC or home network support to $179 for someone to come to your home for the same.
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Posted at 10:43 AM PT
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Tagged: AT&T, Barron's, Best Buy, ConnecTech, Geek Squad, PC, Tech Trader Daily, Tiernan Ray, Voices, frontpage, home technology, personal computer, technical support team, troubleshooting | permalink
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Best Buy (BBY) shares are on the rise this morning on news that the company’s Best Buy Mobile stores will carry the Apple (AAPL) iPhone starting Sept. 7.
Pricing will be the same as it is through Apple and AT&T (T) stores: $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for 16GB, with a two-year AT&T service contract. Best Buy stores already sell iPods and Macs.
Meanwhile, Radio Shack (RSH) shares are sliding today. The retail chain already sells AT&T wireless service, but for now at least, isn’t going to be selling iPhones. Also hurting Radio Shack: news that the company has sold $325 million of 2.5 percent convertible senior notes due 2013.
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Posted at 9:08 AM PT
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Tagged: AT&T, Apple, Barron's, Best Buy, Best Buy Mobile, Eric Savitz, Macs, Radio Shack, Tech Trader Daily, Voices, convertible senior notes, frontpage, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPods, two-year contract, wireless service | permalink
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Best Buy (BBY) has a nice niche with its Geek Squad, providing tech-savvy service people to help customers set up large-screen televisions, home theater systems, wireless networks and other high-end consumer electronics goods. It’s such a nice niche, in fact, that now everyone wants to do it.
Citigroup analyst Kate McShane raised the issue this morning in launching coverage of the electronics retailing giant. She rates Best Buy a “Hold,” and specifically focuses on the the rise of Geek Squad clones. That would be good news for geeks, not so good for Best Buy.
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Posted at 12:17 PM PT
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Tagged: Barron's, Best Buy, Citigroup, Eric Savitz, Geek Squad, Kate McShane, Tech Trader Daily, Voices, consumer electronics, frontpage, home theater systems, large-screen television, wireless networks | permalink
by Stacey Higginbotham, Blogger, GigaOm
This winter holiday season, visitors to Best Buy will be able to purchase televisions and DVD players with the ability to transmit wireless video in high definition. But before getting too excited about dumping your cords, you should know that there are currently four different ways one can watch wireless HD, and it’s unlikely all of them will be built into consumer devices.
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