No you can't. Circuit City doesn't have any sort of game plan at the moment, and it's sinking fast. The company's stock is priced at $2.31 as I write this. The goofy Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI) transaction is gone (for now, at least...there are reports saying that it could be resurrected at a later date, although I don't buy that it will happen at all). It isn't competing effectively against Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT). In short, Circuit City is a Titanic-like electronics retailer that doesn't know how to keep its ship from hitting icebergs.
So this resignation isn't surprising. Of course, is there any way to make money off the stock? I do believe there is downside to come on the share price, which would therefore imply that shorting it could work out. Alas, I wouldn't recommend it. You just know that some company and/or financial entity out there might come in at any point and make a bid, and the shares could skyrocket. Although the Blockbuster deal didn't make sense, it doesn't mean that there isn't some transaction scheme out there that would be logical. Circuit City is a stock merely to watch out of curiosity, it's not one to do anything about.
Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned here; positions can change at any time.
Citing unnamed sources, The New York Postreports that Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) could come back to Circuit City (NYSE: CC) to try to acquire the company.
The sources said that Circuit City pulled out because of weakness in the credit markets, but still feel that a deal could have strong long-term benefits. I don't think it makes sense for Blockbuster to acquire the company but, if it does, pulling out for now is probably a good idea. Shares of Circuit City tanked when Blockbuster announced that it was no longer pursuing a deal, and, according to the Post,Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) isn't interested because of antitrust concerns. With few indications that there is anyone else bidding for Circuit City, and the company's fundamentals in a rapid state of decline, it seems like the longer Blockbuster waits the less it will have to pay. Unless another bidder emerges, there's no real rush.
Back in April, Blockbuster made a preliminary proposal to acquire Circuit City "with an all cash offer in the range of $6.00 to $8.00 per share, subject to due diligence." With shares of Circuit City down 9% to $2.32 on Wednesday, Blockbuster could probably get the company for considerably less if it made another offer today.
With Circuit City bleeding cash, continued consumer weakness could make it really cheap on the courthouse steps later this year. Maybe then Blockbuster shareholders would be more supportive of a deal.
One of the silliest possible mergers in recent memory (no small accomplishment) is dead in the water now that Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) has announced that it will no longer pursue its previously announced effort to acquire Circuit City (NYSE: CC).
In a press release issued yesterday afternoon, Jim Keyes, Blockbuster Chairman and CEO, said that "Based on market conditions and the completion of our initial due diligence process, we have determined that it is not in the best interest of Blockbuster's shareholders to proceed with an acquisition of Circuit City."
Given the shares of Blockbuster tanked when the company announced its initial offer, the company's shares could be expected to trade up today.
For Circuit City, the situation is more grim. With its stock in the toilet, Blockbuster's offer represented one of the few exit strategies. Blockbuster's assertion that its "initial due diligence" was a factor in its decision to withdraw its offer indicates that the company's financial situation may be worse than it appears to outside shareholders.
In a press release offered in response, Philip J. Schoonover , chairman, president and chief executive officer of Circuit City, said that "Our exploration of strategic alternatives is intended to serve the interests of our shareholders by considering every possible alternative to enhance shareholder value. The board's review was not dependent on Blockbuster's participation."
But Blockbuster was the only suitor to emerge publicly so far and, now that it's lost interest, there's little reason to expect anyone else to emerge.
Ever since Circuit City Stores (NYSE: CC) CEO Philip J. Schoonover sliced 3,400 sales people in March 2007 to save money, I have questioned the savvy of its management. That's because many of those fired sales people took their customers over to Best Buy (NYSE: BBY). As its stock lost 86% of its value, I was surprised that anyone would make a bid for it.
Yet Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI), the struggling video store chain, decided to buy. I don't know what got into Blockbuster's head to make it think that combining two struggling companies would make an agile competitor. The Richmond Times reports that it wanted to create a one-stop shop for movies, games, and electronic equipment. But that dream died when Blockbuster pulled its $1.3 billion offer after reviewing Circuit City's books.
Carl Icahn has said he would buy Circuit City. But it's losing money -- $164.8 million, or $1 a share, in its fiscal first quarter. This was $100 million more than its Q1 2007 loss. And Blockbuster's conclusion after a closer look at its financial statements does not bode well for Circuit City's future. Circuit City stock is down 7.8% in pre-market. Let's see whether any new bidders emerge.
Though the earnings season is winding down, consumer electronics retailers Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY) and Circuit City Stores Inc. (NYSE: CC) are scheduled to report second-quarter results this week. Best Buy profits are expected to be lower, while Circuit City is expected to triple its loss.
Best Buy is expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial to report second-quarter earnings of 36 cents per share, down 7.7% from the same period of last year. The company has provided positive surprises in three of the past four quarters -- by 29.2% in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Based in Richfield, Minn., Best Buy is the largest consumer electronics outlet in the U.S., with about 1,300 stores in the U.S. and Canada providing appliances, gadgets, movies and music, cell phones, and technical services. In the past year, the company's revenues were $40 billion and its net income totaled $1.4 billion. Its long-term EPS growth forecast is 15.3%, which is a little better than the retail industry average. The consensus recommendation of analysts shifted from buy to to hold Best Buy during this past quarter.
The stock is down 13.2% since the beginning of the year, but down only 4.7% from a year ago. It trades at a P/E ratio of 14.65. Shares closed Friday at $45.70.
Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) announced first-quarter earnings on Thursday, and while it beat the market's expectations, I can't say I'm terribly excited. Revenues decreased a little over 5% to $1.4 billion. Net income from continuing operations came in at $0.21 per diluted share. Briefing.com says that this performance was $0.06 better than Wall Street's average call. Revenues, however, missed expectations.
Why am I not excited about the performance here? I mean, not only did the bottom line trounce the wizards of Wall Street, but domestic comps increased 2.9%. Well, for one thing, the cash flow was nonexistent. Both operational and free cash-flow were negative; granted, the company used a lot less cash this time for operations, and the deficit in terms of free cash was much better, but still, I don't see any positive green.
Plus, there's just the general idea of Blockbuster itself. My feelings haven't changed since I last wrote about the movie-rental business and its earnings. I still believe that Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and video-on-demand limit the upside potential of the company's long-term prospects (perhaps I shouldn't just say limit; maybe threaten is better terminology, who knows).
For the past year, Circuit City (NYSE: CC) has done a nice job short-circuiting its shareholders. But lately, there has been hope.
In fact, today the company essentially said it's "in play" for a sale. That is, it will allow Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) – which has expressed buyout interest – to check out the books.
Although, it helped that billionaire activist investor, Carl Icahn, has been pushing for a deal. In a letter to Circuit City, he said he'll write a check to buy the company if Blockbuster can't come up with sufficient financing.
Yet, the question lingers: does a combination makes sense? After all, both Circuit City and Blockbuster are ailing. So why would a merger of two duds turn into a great entity? I seriously doubt it's something that frightens the folks at Best Buy (NYSE: BBY).
Then again, Circuit City may really be allowing itself to be sold to another player. For example, the company put an end to its proxy fight with Wattles Capital Management, which got three board seat. Oh, and Circuit City has retained Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) to explore strategic alternatives.
Thus, for the most part, Icahn is playing his typical role as the instigator. Keep in mind that he can be pretty tough to negotiate with – especially when you're selling your company to him.
And, so far in today's trading, Circuit City's shares are up 8%.
This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and check out other Battle of the Brands posts.
Way back when, the movie-rental wars were fought between the neighborhood video stores (which had limited availability) and the superchain Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) (which had limited availability except for the Die Hard series). Then, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) came along with an amazing business model. Set up an account online, build a mammoth list of movies (from tens of thousands available), receive a few in the mail and send them back when you're done -- no late fees, but you only got new movies when you sent old ones back.
At the time, Blockbuster -- and many consumers -- didn't think it would work. First of all, you had to wait a day or two to get new movies; and second of all, who was going to want to deal with sending movies back in the mail? I mean, gosh. Well, eventually, Blockbuster caved and started the same kind of service. When you compare the two, however, which one takes the cake?
What Netlix Offers: For $16.99, you receive three DVDs in the mail. These movies come from the top of the personliazed list you create on the Netflix site. Delivery times vary, but local distribution centers can usually get them to you in two days. You can keep these DVDs as long as you want; but, if you never return them you never get anything new. Which is a real bummer when I Am Legend is gathering dust on your TV set. After you've watched one, or more, send it back in the provided postage-paid envelope. Within a few days, your next movie arrives in the mail. As of now, Netflix offers a total of nine (9) membership plans, from one-at-a-time to eignt-at-a-time. You can also purchase DVDs through the site, in addition to watching certain movies for free.
As an investor, I wouldn't want to get any closer to Blockbuster's (NYSE: BBI) patently stupid effort to buy Circuit City (NYSE: CC) than I have to.
But HBK Investments -- which owns 9% of Circuit City, 8% of the class A stock of Blockbuster, and 5% of the company's class B stock -- has filed a 13-D on the matter, attaching a letter urging Circuit City to give Blockbuster access to the material it needs to perform due diligence. HBK added that if Blockbuster withdraws its offer because of a lack of cooperation by Circuit City's Board, "we believe Circuit City shareholders will be immediately and substantially damaged."
The fund also added that it might be able to provide financing for the deal, and expressed its confidence in the prospects for a combined company: "We believe that over $300 million per year in increased EBITDA could be realized following an acquisition by maximizing cost savings between Circuit City and Blockbuster."
That's a pretty impressive suggestion, and one that flies in the face of what many analysts have said about the proposed deal. But HBK didn't grow to around $14 billion in assets with stupid decisions, so maybe they're onto something.
I'm not a huge fan of Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI), but I do concede that I think the movie renter is on to something with its latest move. According to this brief AP piece, Blockbuster wants to leverage the current video game console cycle to add value for its shareholders. Management intends to increase its presence in this sector by adding more hardware, software and accessories dedicated to consoles from Sony (NYSE: SNE), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY) to its locations.
This would be wise. I think all retailers should have a comprehensive and well-defined strategy when it comes to video games -- why let GameStop (NYSE: GME) have all the fun? Blockbuster should really go all out on this form of leisure entertainment and aggressively pursue this potential area of growth. Kids -- and teenagers and adults, for that matter -- love to try before they buy when it comes to game software.
Management has to realize, however, that it's not enough to just expand its video game sections; oh no. Indeed, some heavy branding and promotional initiatives are definitely required to convince consumers that Blockbuster is a go-to place for rental/buying needs related to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and the Nintendo DS. I haven't thought of Blockbuster as a place to rent video games for a long time now (I also haven't thought about Blockbuster in general, since there aren't any close to me anymore).
So, yes, Blockbuster should do what it can to hitch onto the hot video game growth curve. This is a much, much better idea than buying Circuit City (NYSE: CC), I can tell you that. (For more on that debacle, check out Zac Bissonnette's recent post on the subject.)
Disclosure: I don't own shares in any of the companies mentioned here; positions can change at any time.
It's easy to understand why Blockbuster's (NYSE: BBI) out-of-nowhere bid for Circuit City (NYSE: CC) has been greeted with such skepticism: it's one of the most patently moronic business stories in recent months. And given the subprime mess, that's saying a lot.
The New York Times quotes a number of analysts, all of whom expressed substantial skepticism about the Circuit City deal. Most just don't see the point. Some worry that such a large deal will distract Blockbuster management from the task of restructuring its struggling core business.
Lehman Brothers analyst Douglas Anmuth has a creative take on it, pointing out that Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) could be the ultimate beneficiary of the deal: "The extensive use of both financial and management resources by Blockbuster throughout this process could be positive for Netflix as Netflix continues to focus on growing its subscriber base."
I'm not so sure about that, but I would look at it this way: how confident can Blockbuster be about its future as a stand-alone company if it's trying to pour its resources into such a bizarre acquisition?
Carl Icahn has said he is willing to step in as the financier of last resort if no one else will finance the deal, which seems like a good bet. Given the status of the credit markets, I can't see any bank rushing in to finance this universally maligned deal.
But questions remain about Icahn's offer. What are the terms? The publicly available details are vague.
Whether the deal will get done is anyone's guess. I'll leave Circuit City to the arbitrageurs, but I'd stay away from Blockbuster. This drunken-sailor grabbing the arm of another drunken sailor bid looks desperate -- and may indicate that Blockbuster's management is far less confident about its future with or without Circuit City than it's been letting on.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: EMC Corp, Emulex, VCG Holding and Conexant were today's noteworthy downgrades:
Citigroup downgraded shares of EMC Corp (NYSE: EMC) to hold from buy and Emulex (NYSE: ELX) to sell from buy and lowered its targets to $17 from $22 and to $12 from $20, respectively, to reflect their more cautious stance on the storage space after channel checks indicated a broadly softening demand environment, most notably for 'higher ticket' items.
Merriman downgraded shares of VCG Holding (NASDAQ:VCGH) to neutral from buy following the Q4 miss, as they believe acquisitions could slow in the near-term. They prefer to move to the sidelines until the company's outlook improves.
Oppenheimer downgraded Conexant (NASDAQ: CNXT) to perform from outperform as they believe the CEO departure could interrupt the company's turnaround.
After Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) announced its bid for Circuit City (NYSE: CC) in the $6-8 range this morning, Circuit City replied in a press release that "to date Blockbuster has been unable to satisfy Circuit City and its advisors that Blockbuster's proposal could be financed."
Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting (subscription required) that "Mr. Icahn, a Blockbuster director whose companies own about 16% of Blockbuster's Class A shares, has agreed to backstop Blockbuster's rights offering if it cannot obtain the financing elsewhere, according to Circuit City investor Mark Wattles."
All of this raises an interesting question: has Mr. Icahn gotten daft? Blockbuster shares are down more than 16% on the news of this offer, strong evidence that, rightly or wrongly, Icahn is seeing something investors don't.
In any case, Icahn's backing removes one big stumbling block from this deal's path, as there is no question that he has the resources to make it happen. Even so, at its current price of $5.08, Circuit City is trading at a wide discount to the $6-8 offer contemplated in the letter. Perhaps people think King Icahn will change his mind.
As Doug McIntyre reported earlier, Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) has extended a preliminary offer to acquire Circuit City (NYSE: CC) "with an all cash offer in the range of $6.00 to $8.00 per share, subject to due diligence."
In a press release, Blockbuster said that Circuit City has not yet provided it with information necessary to conduct due diligence, and that it "believes the shareholders of Circuit City should have the opportunity to participate in determining the destiny of the company."
The pre-market trading tells the story on this one. Share of Circuit City are up more than 55% to $6.14, at the lowest end of the range Blockbuster's press release contemplates. This indicates investor skepticism about the prospects of a deal getting done. In a press release responding to the offer, Circuit City noted that "to date Blockbuster has been unable to satisfy Circuit City and its advisors that Blockbuster's proposal could be financed." Meanwhile shares of Blockbuster are down about 11%, a sign that investors aren't too excited about the prospect of a Blockbuster-Circuit City combination.
It's easy to understand why. This deal would be the absolute epitome of "two drunken sailors trying to hold each other up." Both of these companies have experienced precipitous declines in recent years, reporting losses as industry changes and more nimble competitors take their market share.
Citing unnamed sources, The New York Post 
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