Speakeasy acquired by... Best Buy?

[libertango]

This is the press release. While it says the senior executive team is staying, it says nothing specific about Mike Apgar, the founder and Chairman of Speakeasy.

This blog post over at ZDNet elaborates a bit. Their theory is Best Buy wants to become a "one-stop IT shop" for small and medium businesses. Perhaps most eye-opening is the claim, "...32 percent of (Best Buy's) product revenue in fiscal 2006 was home office gear."

Strangely enough, I think this may all be due to the recent near-death experience of CompUSA. Their exit leaves a huge yawning gap in the retail space, and it looks like Best Buy is going a-hunting with a vengeance. After all, I can't recall ever being able to order a T-1 at CompUSA, but with Speakeasy's assets in their portfolio you might be able to do that at a retail counter at Best Buy. :)

The other interesting question is: Whither Covad, who is Speakeasy's principal CLEC? (That is, the upstream company Speakeasy connected to for broadband connectivity.) Just how integrated does Best Buy really want to get?

Comments

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Wow. Weird shit, Maynard. Whatever else is true, it can't possibly improve the corporate culture internal to the acquired Speakeasy. And unless Best Buy actually can acquire Covad, I imagine they'll continue to have problems with their upstream-controlled issues.

Well out of it, well out of it, and possibly time to figure out how to take a short position on Best Buy.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

No, looking at Investopedia (no lie), the problem with a short position is that you're obligated to return the stock at some point, and so you have to have a pretty clear idea that the stock will drop in price in the short term for a quick turn-around, or you may end up buying it back at a loss.