Rumours are circulating about a big for Best Buy (BBY, Financial). It is about time! The company is absurdly cheap and the fears of a wholesale shift to Amazon (AMZN) are overblown. I initially wrote about it here.
Author Disclosure: Long BBY
The Minnesota-based retail giant has become an alluring target for a private takeover, according to industry sources. The nation’s largest consumer electronics chain generates more than $1 billion in cash a year and has relatively little debt. …What do you think of Best Buy?
A takeover of Best Buy “is on a lot of people’s radar screens,” said Jeremy Brunelli, a retail analyst with Consumer Edge Research in Stamford, Conn. “Best Buy is an obvious candidate. There’s a definite buzz going on.”
Investors are contacting people with connections to Best Buy to seek their help in exploring a buyout bid, a source with close ties to the company confirmed.
“There are people swarming all over this,” said the source, who declined to name those parties.
One name attracting attention is Greenlight Capital Inc., an investor with a record of challenging boards at other troubled companies. Since 2011, the New York-based firm has purchased 7.7 million shares of Best Buy stock, making it the retailer’s ninth-largest investor.
Author Disclosure: Long BBY
