Not that blogs are the most reliable sources, but Engadget is one of the more respectable ones. Nonetheless, the source of their rumor post — a supposed Best Buy Co. internal memo — is somewhat dubious, as Engadget even admits. In the Best Buy e-mail, it indicated the company has stopped restocking shipments after February and has contacted liquidators. How did Best Buy hear of the possible closure? It stands to reason that the two retailers share vendors.
After failing to sell itself last year, CompUSA closed 126 stores in February, and it announced plans to refocus its remaining 103 around a more business-oriented product mix. However, a tour of the Midtown Manhattan store shows that little has changed since the February closures. Of course, the report could instead imply that, come February, the company will officially begin offering an entirely new product mix as promised a year earlier.
Again, the Engadget report is entirely hearsay, but worth keeping an eye on. — Matthew Wurtzel
See story from Engadget
See TheDeal.com: Report: CompUSA on the block
Comments
Back in 2000 when Grupo Carso made his bid (together with two other partners) for CompUSA, nobody in the US business arena believed the dying company could be turned around. However, Slim, long known in Mexico by the nickname of King Midas, had a different plan in mind. He has a long standing record of buying low, turning around, and sometimes selling the newly refurbished company but often keeping it as part of his portfolio of hundreds of companies, many of them way beyond the borders of Mexico. Soon after the acquisition of CompUSA, he bought out his partners and privatized the company. Later on, he transferred the property of CompUSA to U.S. Comercial Corp S.A. de C.V., a Mexican corporation controlled by Grupo Carso --the only asset of Comercial is the stock of CompUSA. After applying the Midas (Slim that is) touch to CompUSA, Comercial was listed in the Mexican Stock Exchange (Bolsa Mexicana de Valores -- BMV). Slim must know something about the virtues of the BMV that we mortals don't know; he actually controls over 50% of the companies listed in that exchange. I don’t believe he is planning to sell or close CompUSA, unless he is planning to buy another retail franchise. I can safely bet that his most recent reorganization of CompUSA will allow the company to show an important burst of profitability and the stock of Comercial will once again flourish. His track record is outstanding. Slim's business acumen has positioned him as the richest man in the world in spite of the difficulties encountered in a country like Mexico and partially described in A Silent Nightmare, available at Amazon.