Best Buy

Best Buy

Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is an American public company that is a specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19 percent of the market. Headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota, it also operates in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada and China.

The company's subsidiaries include CinemaNow, Geek Squad, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, Cowboom, and, in Canada operates under both the Best Buy and Future Shop label. Together these companies operate more than 1,150 stores, domestically and internationally. In addition, the company operates over 100 Best Buy Express Automated Retail stores or "ZoomShops", operated by Zoom Systems, in airports and malls around the U.S.

It was named "Company of the Year" by Forbes magazine in 2004, "Specialty Retailer of the Decade" by Discount Store News in 2001, ranked in the Top 10 of "America's Most Generous Corporations" by Forbes in 2005 (based on 2004 giving), and made Fortune magazine's List of Most Admired Companies in 2006.

On March 9, 2009, Best Buy became the largest electronics retail store (online and bricks and mortar) in the eastern United States, after smaller rival Circuit City went out of business. Fry's Electronics remains a major competitor in the western United States, while hhgregg remains competitive in the eastern United States. Many locations feature in-store pickup, which can be arranged through the company's website.

Best Buy is also a retailer of cellular phones with phones from Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS, Boost Mobile, and T-Mobile. Best Buy also has standalone Best Buy Mobile stores in shopping malls that sell a subset of products carried at the larger stores.

In 2011, during the three-month period ended February 26, the company saw its revenue and profits slide, generating a profit of $651 million on revenue of $16.26 billion. In comparison to the same period in 2010, it tallied $16.55 billion in revenue and a $779 million profit. Various reasons have been given for the decline.

In 2012, the company announced it would be closing fifty stores in the U.S., including a high-profile store on Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts, as part of a "transformation strategy".

On April 10, 2012, Brian J. Dunn resigned as the company's chief executive officer under a mutual agreement that it was time for new leadership to address Best Buy's problems. Director G. Mike Mikan was named the company's interim CEO.

In July 2012, the company planned to cut 2,400 store and Geek Squad jobs, starting immediately, according to a person familiar with the plans. Two of the Best Buy stores that closed were located in Baltimore, Maryland, at the Inner Harbor; and Hunt Valley, Maryland, in the Hunt Valley Mall. It announced that the company would shift its focus to Best Buy Mobile stores to open in shopping malls and other places where the aforementioned stores would generate revenue for the company.

On August 20, 2012, it was announced that Hubert Joly would be the full time CEO replacing Interim CEO G. Mike Mikan effective September 2012.