Best Buy should be interested in Circuit City's Firedog brand


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.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA+72.8112,874.04
NASDAQ+27.512,931.39
S&P 500+9.131,351.77

Last updated: February 13, 2012: 05:35 PM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

19.07+0.195(+1.03)

Alcoa

10.33+0.04(+0.39)

Apple Inc

502.60+9.18(+1.86)

Google Inc 'A'

612.20+6.29(+1.04)

Bank of America

8.25+0.18(+2.23)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.79-0.11(-0.18)

Exxon Mobil Corp

84.42+0.62(+0.74)

Ford

12.54+0.10(+0.80)

Citigroup

32.88-0.045(-0.14)

IBM

192.62+0.20(+0.10)

Yahoo

16.12-0.02(-0.12)

Starbucks

49.25+0.43(+0.88)

Microsoft

30.58+0.085(+0.28)

Home Depot

45.93+0.60(+1.32)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1329172515659 ms.