Could Sears or Wal-Mart bid for Circuit City?

Amazon.com could possibly bid for Circuit City. A combination of these two companies could create sufficient cost synergies and greater purchasing power allowing both Amazon and Circuit City to become more price competitive. Additionally, Circuit City's online operations have seen continued growth and could easily be merged with Amazon.com's current offerings.
Let's also not forget the possibility of a sale to a foreign firm, especially given the decline of the dollar. A company like Carrefour could be looking to take on Walmart in its home market, leveraging the strength of the Euro to buy in to an already established and well known U.S. retailer.

Amazon.com could possibly bid for Circuit City. A combination of these two companies could create sufficient cost synergies and greater purchasing power allowing both Amazon and Circuit City to become more price competitive. Additionally, Circuit City's online operations have seen continued growth and could easily be merged with Amazon.com's current offerings.
Let's also not forget the possibility of a sale to a foreign firm, especially given the decline of the dollar. A company like Carrefour could be looking to take on Walmart in its home market, leveraging the strength of the Euro to buy in to an already established and well known U.S. retailer.

I'm not sure I agree with the Amazon suggestion, but your thought about a foreign acquirer certainly makes sense given the weakness of the dollar. Carrefour would certainly fit the bill, but would they keep the format? Circuit City stores are certainly too small for Carrefour's hypermarket format. Would Carrefour or any of the European discount retailers have the stomach to enter the U.S. through a niche business? Are there any European electronics retailer with the scale to build in the U.S.? Instead of a European retailer, why not a Japanese one? Japan has a few electronics retailers, and they may have the scale to cross the Pacific.

Perhaps Sears could focus on getting their act together with their current stores before they run off buying another one. Customer service is the pits and the stores are so dated it's like 1986 everyday!

Buying more and more stores is foolish when the ones you have need desperate maintenance and upkeep.

I think Apple should make a bid for circuit city. First, any acquisition for CC would probably be around $700 million or so. That represents less than 1/200th of Apples market cap, yet Apple would be getting $11 billion in revenue and suddenly be able to actually have a real storefront presence, other than the few malls and superstores they have. What has CC been lacking? Their staff is widely considered inadequate, incompetent and unhelpful and their stores lack the buzz that competitors such as Best Buy have. Apple has more buzz than anyone, and with their creativity and geek coolness, they really can transform this company, while at the same time be able to dramatically expand their consumer presence. First, they can really promote their own computers, and it is my belief that an acquisition of CC could greatly expand apple's computer marketshare. Second, while they would obviously still be selling all kinds of tvs, they can really make a go at it on the Apple TV. Third, they can cross-sell and promote the heck out of their digitial music and movie business (just as Blockbuster discussed doing w/ CC). They can even change the name to "Apple City" or "Circuit City" at "Apple World." I think if this were to come to fruition, Apple would fully be the dominate force in the consumer electronics industry. Next up: come out with a games consol, or at the very least an itunes like video gaming downloadable delivery system.