When Circuit City went out of business this past Spring, there really was not much left in its wake. Competitive retailers like Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) really didn't take the billions per quarter of new business that Circuit City was booking right up until the end. Yes, it must have been that bad.But, Circuit City didn't just leave behind a retail operation full of consumer electronic products -- many of which had notoriously low margins. It left behind a services business called Firedog that did everything from install home theater equipment to troubleshooting computers. Although Best Buy's similar Geek Squad service could be more interested in making margin that pleasing customers in some cases, it still is a major margin growth area for the retailer. So, it stands to fact that Firedog would also see some love from interested parties, right?
Streambank, LLC, which came on board about four months ago to help sell some of Circuit City's intellectual property assets, says that "We are having dialogues with multiple parties," in relation to finding a buyer for the Firedog brand. Much of those folks were contract workers, but there is a lot in the brand name, customer database and website properties. Who would want to buy all that?
If Best Buy seriously wants to own the consumer electronics service business -- even if it sees redundancy in the Firedog brand -- then it should be in the lead spot for a buy. Geek Squad could be for all its PC service business, and Firedog could be everything from home theater to appliance installation.
Nuclear power is on the comeback trail
Apple backs AT&T in continuing spat with Verizon
Closing Bell: The recession is still over, still... do you feel it?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-31-2009 @ 4:49PM
Iridium said...
Best Buy has Magnolia for home theater and Geek Squad for PCs. They don't need Firedog.
I also don't think Firedog means anything to people in the home theater world.
8-03-2009 @ 12:32PM
Jeff said...
"Firedog, what's that?"
"It's the old tech service of now defunct Circuit City"
"Oh yea, we should call them."
8-18-2009 @ 10:09PM
silverwarrior76 said...
There is only one competitor who needs to be taken seriously when it comes to shopping the "flaming puppy" brand, and that's WalMart.