Gizmodo: Circuit City

Blockbuster Drops Bid for Circuit City, Making Future For Both Unsure

Matt Hickey — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:01:10 EDT

We were excited for the merger talks between Blockbuster Video and Circuit City, as that union could create a probable entertainment behemoth, and we don't mean like Paula Abdul. Sadly word is coming down that Blockbuster is pulling its offer for Circuit off the table. Apparently it was ultimately decided that the match wasn't a good fit for Blockbuster's shareholders, so the plans have been scrapped. What could have been an awesome two-front retailer now means Blockbuster has to find new ways to catch up with Netflix, and Circuit City has to keep its head above water without any help. Bets on what happens next? [Forbes]

Blockbuster Offers to Buy Circuit City, Have Sad Date Talking About Good Old Times

Kit Eaton — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:44:10 EDT

Blockbuster has offered $6 minimum per share to buy out Circuit City, with the intention of creating a $18 billion global retail enterprise. You can almost see the point of mixing media and device retail, but is this actually a good move for two companies facing a not-so-bright future? Read more in the Blockbuster press release after the jump. [PCWorld]

February 17, 2008
Mr. Philip J. Schoonover
Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer
Circuit City Stores, Inc.
9950 Mayland Drive
Richmond, VA 23233
Dear Phil:

Since early December, we have had a number of conversations regarding the potential combination of our businesses. As a follow-up to those discussions, I would like to formally reiterate our interest in pursuing an acquisition of Circuit City. The purpose of this letter is to ensure that there is no ambiguity and to outline our proposal.

Our vision for the "new" Blockbuster is to be the most convenient source for media entertainment. We have undertaken a series of strategic initiatives including enhancement of our core rental business; a transition from solely rental to a concentration on consumer retail; and development of the fast-growing digital download market. We are pleased that these strategic initiatives have begun to improve our financial results and anticipate further improvement going forward.

The combination of Blockbuster and Circuit City will result in an $18 billion retail enterprise uniquely positioned for the convergence of media content and electronic devices. We would seek to differentiate products in both Blockbuster and Circuit City stores by offering exclusive content and content-enabled devices. Both companies would benefit from complementary products, marketing, management strengths, technology and distribution and the resulting synergies would significantly improve consolidated financial performance. Overall, I strongly believe that a combination of Blockbuster and Circuit City would deliver significant value to our respective shareholders, enhance the overall customer experience, and energize our employees.

Based on our review of publicly available information, we are confident that we can provide a substantial premium to your shareholders with an all cash offer in the range of $6.00 to $8.00 per share, subject to due diligence. We are also willing to pursue alternative structures which would enable Circuit City shareholders to receive stock and participate in what we believe would be an exciting future for the combined enterprise. Given current debt market conditions, we believe most of the cash necessary would

be generated through the issuance of additional Blockbuster equity, most probably in a rights offering to our existing shareholders. We believe they, and the market, will recognize the merits of this transaction and we are confident that we can raise the required equity. The borrowing capacity of the combined business would provide the remaining cash proceeds.

Time is of the essence and we are focused on minimizing the risk of business disruption. We are prepared to commence a very short due diligence process immediately, on the basis of exclusivity, with the intention of entering into a definitive agreement shortly thereafter. Attached, as an appendix to this letter, you will find a concise list of the most critical due diligence items which we would need to review in order to confirm our final offer. We have reviewed this potential transaction with our board of directors, and it is with their full support that we make this request to move forward. Given the importance of this opportunity to Blockbuster and the strong desire to complete it as soon as possible, we would be grateful for your response no later than 5:00 PM CST on February 21, 2008.

Again, I thank you for the time you have spent discussing this opportunity with me. I am prepared to discuss the details of this proposal at your earliest convenience and believe that we will be able to quickly come to a mutually beneficial agreement. I look forward to working together on this exciting opportunity.

Very truly yours,

Jim Keyes
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Blockbuster Inc.

Wow: Best Buy and Circuit City Unofficially OK With Haggling

Brian Lam — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 13:28:05 EDT

Best Buy has always earned my disdain with their retail price mentality. But now, the NYT is reporting that the mega chain and Circuit City have both told sales associates that a little haggling to get the sale done is fine. People in the company are saying this is not new. But I'm sure many don't know about it, so it is to consumers. Translation: Before you buy, bitch about the prices, Chinatown style.

Some chains, esp in the NY area, have always embraced such methods. But with internet shopping making price comparisons and deal finding easier than ever, the retail brick and mortars are making back room policies like this one to stay competitive. [NYT]

From a tipster who presumably works at a megachain:

This is not new. The discount ability has been in the POS system for years. Associates have always been encouraged to close a sale, even if that means marking down the price a little. People just need to learn not to take no as an answer.

Best Buy Pledges $50 For Each HD DVD Buyer; Trade-Ins, Too

Wilson Rothman — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:43:24 EDT

Apparently, the cost of Best Buy declaring Blu-ray the winner is $10 million—at least, that's how much it plans to give away when it issues a $50 gift card to everyone who bought an HD DVD player or HD DVD Xbox drive before February 23. (So, BB sold at least 200,000 HD DVD players in 2006 and 2007?) And it's not even something you have to fight for: If you are in the Reward Zone program, bought it with a Performance Service Plan or just made the transaction on BestBuy.com, the company will send you a card by May 1. If you paid cash at a store, though, you'll have to dig out that receipt. The company, like its competitor Circuit City, is also offering trade-ins for players and discs, regardless of where you bought them, through BB's online trade-in center. Make the jump for extra details.

Best Buy Stands Behind Customers By Awarding More Than $10 Million in Gift Cards to HD-DVD Purchasers
Leading Consumer Electronics Retailer will Send $50 Gift Cards to Customers Who Purchased an HD-DVD Player from Best Buy in the U.S.

MINNEAPOLIS —(Business Wire)— Mar. 19, 2008 With Blu-ray declaring victory over HD-DVD in the high definition movie format war, Best Buy, the nation's largest consumer electronics retailer, is giving $50 gift cards to customers who purchased an HD-DVD player or HD-DVD attachment from its U.S. stores before February 23, 2008. Customers will get a gift card for each player or HD-DVD attachment that they purchased. Through this program, Best Buy will distribute more than $10 million in gift cards to customers across the country.

"The DVD format war has divided our customers in a way we haven't seen since Betamax took on VHS more than 20 years ago," said Brian J. Dunn, president and chief operating officer for Best Buy. "At Best Buy, we understood and shared our customers' frustrations as they were being asked to choose one format or the other. Now that the format war is over, we hope these gift cards will reassure our customers that we will help them make a smooth transition into the right technology for their needs."

Most Best Buy customers won't have to do anything to receive their gift card. As a demonstration of its commitment to its customers, Best Buy will proactively mail cards to all customers that the company can identify as having purchased an HD-DVD player. Members of the Best Buy Reward Zone program, customers who purchased Performance Service Plans (PSPs) or who made their purchase on BestBuy.com should look for their gift cards in the mail by May 1. Other customers who may not be easily identified can call (888) BEST BUY to receive their gift cards with proof of purchase through a credit card or their Best Buy receipt.

"The beauty of this offer is that it doesn't require our customers to give up their HD-DVD player," said Barry Judge, chief marketing officer for Best Buy. "We know that many people who purchased these players have HD-DVD movies that they would like to continue to watch. We're telling our customers they can keep their players to play these movies as well as their older DVDs and use the $50 to treat themselves to anything else in our stores."

HD-DVD players can actually deliver greatly enhanced video performance with standard DVDs by upconverting the video resolution.

Beginning on March 21, customers who do want to get rid of their HD-DVD players can visit Best Buy's Online Trade-In Center at http://www.bestbuytradein.com. Visitors to the site will receive instant estimates of the value of their HD-DVD players and movies. Those who agree with the estimates can then ship their goods to the Trade-In Center free of charge by downloading a prepaid shipping label and will receive an additional gift card as payment for their trade-in. This service is open to HD-DVD owners regardless of where they bought their player.

For more information visit http://www.bestbuy.com/hddvd.

iPod Nano Getting Purple Paint Job?

Haroon Malik — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:06:41 EST

This image from a Circuit City advertisement seems to show the iPod nano dressed up in yet another sickening color—this time deep purple. The advertisement was spotted in a circular today, but we have not seen it for ourselves. Has anyone glimpsed a shot of the picture in question? And do we really need purple to add to the list of nauseating colors the iPod nano already comes in? Sentences ending in questions aside, we have seen the iPod shuffle gain a similar purple treatment, so it does not seem imposible. We'll let you know as soon as we hear any official word on the potential update. [Connection Podcast]

Old Websites Sure Are Funny

Mark Wilson — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 23:59:00 EST

Digging through websites cached from the 90s is akin to seeing a celebrity's high school yearbook pictures—during the early, awkward years of the web, brave companies made a stab at winning consumer hearts through 15" CRTs and 14.4k dial up modems. Inspired by this MSU page, we decided to take a gander through the Internet Archive's Wayback machine (a service that started saving pages in 1996). Needless to say, we found some funny stuff.

My personal favorite might be the LEGO site, but really, there are no winners on this list. What do you think? Oh, and special (nonexistent) prize to anyone who digs through the Wayback archives and finds funny stuff for the comments. [wayback] Photos by Eric Sheline

Circuit City Clearing Out HD DVD Players For Cheap, For Ever

matt buchanan — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 22:00:20 EST

A Circuit City employee writes on the High-Def Digest forum that Big Red is taking Toshiba's already deep HD DVD price cuts a step bloodier: They've tagged the cheap HD-A3 and higher-end HD-A30 as clearance items, moving them out the door for $100 and $150, respectively. Placing HD DVD on clearance effectively means Circuit City is quitting the format, at least on the hardware side. Someone ring the bell, please. [High-Def Digest via Max Console] UPDATE: It looks like this was probably a pricing error. [High-Def Digest]

Circuit City Black Friday Ad Offers Best Deals So Far

Jason Chen — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:48:05 EST

The Best Buy Black Friday ad held a couple deals in terms of reasonably priced TVs and a $399 Sony laptop that's sure to sell out before you even get in the store, but Circuit City has its own set of goodies for you to camp out for.

Here are only some the notables. There are actually tons of good deals in there.

Compaq Presario Laptop w/Intel Pentium Dual-Core Processor and 1GB RAM - $299.99
Toshiba Satelillite Laptop with AMD Athlon 64 X2 Duel Core - $399.99
HP Pavilion Media Center PC with AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 5200+ - $499.97 AR

A bunch of digital cameras < $200
Fairly reasonably priced GPS units

Onkyo 5.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver - $149.99
Samsung 5.1 Channel 800W Home Theater System - $149.99
Kingston 1GB Notebook DDR2 Memory - $14.99
Wireless-G Router Free with Any Laptop - $0.00
Seagate 500GB External Hard Drive - $79.99
Western Digital 1TB My Book Essential External 3.5 USB Hard Drive - $199.99
XBox 360 Pro w/Free Wireless Controller & Two Games - $349.99

[BlackFriday.info]

Circuit City Becoming 'The City' With Best Buy-like Store Layout?

Jason Chen — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:45:17 EDT

The reported Circuit City store redesign may not have come yet, but we've found pictures of a supposed concept store that looks and feels a lot like Best Buy. This Circuit City store—which has the new name "The City"—is open to the public in some unknown place. Our tipster says it's a last ditch effort by the CEO to revive the company, but the domain "thecity.com" has been registered by Circuit City since 1995. Whether this experimental store will expand to nationwide status is still unknown. The above pic is from the Richmond, VA retail location down the street from the corporate office. [Retailworker - Thanks Tipsters!]

Circuit City is irked about seeing their ...

Matt Buchanan — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:34:39 EDT

Circuit City is irked about seeing their weekly ads up on Cheap Ass Gamer and DVD Talk before they hit the Sunday papers, especially the one that revealed the PS3 price drop—they've subpoenaed both sites for info about the leaker. [Kotaku]

Buy One, Get One Free Xbox LIVE Points (and Subsequently Games)

Mark Wilson — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 15:00:26 EDT

This Sunday's Circuit City ad is offering savings of $20 on the purchase of two Xbox LIVE accessories $19.99 and up. Constomers have double checked, and the deal applies to LIVE points, which means you can get a two-for-one special on 1600 point cards! Go forth, buy the cheap cards, and get future LIVE Arcade purchases for half price. Or just sell them on Ebay. [ad via joystiq]

Dealzmodo: Toshiba Satellite S4527 Dual Core Vista Notebook, $650

Travis Hudson — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 18:20:01 EDT

Circuit City has $100 off a pretty snazzy Toshiba laptop. The S4527 laptop has a T2080 1.7GHz processor, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 120GB hard drive, CD/DVD burner, 15.4-inch widescreen, Wi-Fi, card reader and includes Windows Vista Home Premium. The grand total is $650 after the $100 instant savings. Not bad for an average laptop, although I would prefer a Core 2 Duo processor. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via Dealhack]

Microsoft Vista Launch Deals

Louis Ramirez — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 15:57:49 EST

Tomorrow is Vista's official launch date and if you're one of the ~~brave~~ few souls who's looking to upgrade, DailyTech has rounded up a few deals that'll make the process a little easier on your wallet (just note that to get the deal you'll have to purchase Vista Home Premium or higher). Our favorite is Circuit City's bundle, which includes a free D-Link Wireless-G router and Lexmark all-in-one when you buy MS' new OS. But we recommend you stick with XP instead. It ain't going anywhere and you already know it works with your existing PC. – Louis Ramirez

January 30 Windows Vista Launch Deals [DailyTech]

Circuit City to Internet: Don't Use Our Coupons

Mark Wilson — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 12:26:06 EST

Yesterday in our Dealzmodo, we posted a link to a $40 Circuit City coupon, which could be used on a Wii if they were available this weekend. Then we saw this post on digg:

ADVERTISEMENT CORRECTION NOTICE

Circuit City is no longer participating in the AllConnect "Getting You Plugged In" Coupon Offers.

Because an error in production regarding limitations occurred, we had no choice but to expire this offer. We apologize for any convenience or disappointment this may cause you, our valued customer.

But the plot thickens within the digg comments (yes, I read comments)...

"Actually this is not Gizmodo's fault. Circuit City just changed the coupon. My boss and I are both looking for Wiis and I told him about it right away. He printed the coupon and then I went back to my desk to print mine. I saw the "excludes video game hardware" blurb and went to show him. He does not have that blurb. Both versions have the same serial number. Good thing we have a photocopy machine."

So not only was the coupon less-awesomefied by no longer applying to consoles, but later pulled completely (no longer applying to anything). Should companies be allowed to change offers in this manner...and is it me, or do retailers not take the online sector very seriously? –Mark Wilson

Non-Coupon Page [via digg]

Dealzmodo: You. Wii. Circuit City. $209

Travis Hudson — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:32:14 EST

In addition to Best Buy, the birdies are saying that Circuit City will also have Wii's in stock this Sunday, but the fun doesn't end there. Print out this awesome coupon to receive $40 off your purchase of $199 or more bringing the Wii down to $209. If you don't get a Wii, don't fret, just use the coupon on a giant TV or refrigerator to compensate for your loss. –Travis Hudson

Edit: Okay, so I can't read fine print worth a damn and didn't realize the $40 coupon excludes gaming hardware. Neverless, it is still a solid $40 off $200 coupon that can be used on mostly everything in the store. Sorry. Nevertheless the rumor is still true that CC may have Wii's in stock on Sunday, so happy line-waiting.

Coupon Page [Via TheWiiExperience]

Circuit City Store Layouts Getting Overhauled, Might Suck Less

Matt Buchanan — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 20:15:41 EST

Looking to gain some ground against arch-rival Best Buy and online retailers, Circuit City is debuting a redesigned store model in June. Rather than try the bigger and badder approach, they're actually shrinking stores by a third, presumably utilizing a more economical setup in order to cut costs, though details are sketchy at this point.

I'm all for it, since most of the CC stores I've been to have a poor, non-standardized layout with a lot of wasted space. On the other hand, I can walk into BBs in two different states and find everything I want. Besides, anything that allows Circuit City to keep undercutting Best Buy's prices in their weekly ads gets a thumbs up in my book. Now if they could just drop that stupid "Firedog" moniker for their Geek Squad ripoff. – Matt Buchanan

Circuit City to roll out new prototype store [CNN Money]

Dealzmodo: Circuit City Holiday Blowout Sale

Travis Hudson — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 09:45:25 EST

No worries if you missed out on all of the Black Friday shenanigans. Circuit City is having a holiday blowout sale featuring many Black Friday-esque deals. They have hundreds of dollars off select digital cameras, DLP HDTVs, laptops, GPS units and more. What better way to finish off that holiday shopping that simply clicking and waiting for the package to arrive. Hooray, laziness! – Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via Bargainist]

Circuit City's Holiday Survey Says You Want...

gadgetmatt — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 19:30:25 EST

Circuit City's annual Holiday Survey results came out today and—surprise!—the company reports that out of 2,200 poll participants, most want consumer tech this holiday. For the third year running, electronics have beat out "family trip," "new car," "home appliances" and "other" as the gift of choice for the majority (OK, 51 percent) of moms and dads taking the poll. But this is a bit of a drop-off from the 2004 numbers, when 74 percent said they'd prefer high tech toys to all else.

In detail, most gadget fiends want to receive new televisions more than any thing else, especially high-def sets. New computers ranked second, and third on the list for ~~men~~ boys want video game consoles, while gals want digital cameras.

Take this as a reminder to make out wish lists—it's never too soon to ask for a Wii. – Matt Schneiderman

Press Release [PR Newswire]

Circuit City's Firedog Is Up, Running, And Licking Crotches

Jason Chen — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 19:00:48 EDT

Circuit City's Firedog service is now online, servicing old people and tech-illiterates all over America. To refresh, Firedog is Circuit City's answer to Best Buy's Geek Squad, which helps people install and fix PCs and home theatre systems.

Firedog looks to help with all that, plus "integrated services", which right now covers stuff like Media Center PCs, but from what we hear, will later expand to take on the Home Appliance division of Circuit City. So now you've got two choices if you want someone to come and not fix your PC correctly. – Jason Chen

Official Site [Firedog]

Circuit City's Services Dept. Renamed Firedog, Competes With Geek Squad

Jason Chen — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 20:55:16 EDT

The rumorsphere is rolling with news of Circuit City's upcoming rebranding of their services department to compete with Best Buy's Geek Squad. The new "Firedog" department will do both in-store and on-site home theatre/computer installations. Also, Circuit City is going to start carrying appliances again, which will be serviced by the Firedogs as well. No ETA on when this is arriving, but we're sitting on pins and needles here!

We're just kidding about that whole "rumorsphere" business. Nobody really talks about Circuit City. – Jason Chen

Circuit City Violates DMCA For $10

Jason Chen — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 16:00:25 EDT

Not content with just ripping you off with their high hardware prices, Circuit City is now robbing you via a DVD transfer service. For $10, you can get one of your precious DVD movies—that you "own"—ripped into iPod format. For $20, they'll do three, and for $30 they'll do five.

This service is all fine for grandma—who can't compute her way out of a wet paper sack—but according to the DMCA, any attempts to circumvent the encoding scheme on DVDs is a big federal, pound-me-in-the-ass no-no. That means The City is breaking DMCA several times a day, transferring customer's videos onto their iPods and other portable media devices. – Jason Chen

Circuit City Flouts The DMCA For A Tenner [Consumerist]

Circuit City Saga

Noah R — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 08:21:08 EST

Ah, the most wonderful time of the year—when punks with bad haircuts at electronics chains tell baldfaced lies to sell products, and the electronics chains themselves do the same. That's the cautionary tale from Frau Boekhoff, who saw a Toshiba M45 S169 laptop—with a ~~serial~~ parallel port—advertised on the Circuit City website for under $1k. After much to-do, and prying open a door on the back of the machine with a screwdriver, she learned that the laptop did not have a serial port—only a hole for a serial port. After basically being forced to buy a higher-priced laptop, she is sent to Radio Shack for a $40 USB conversion cable.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! Anyone else out there care to share tales of shopping cheer with us?

Saga of Circuit City False Advertising and Customer Abuse [blog]

Circuit City Selling Xbox 360 on Friday?

gizmodo.com — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 18:18:42 EST

In what either is a typo or an attempt to set the world record for longest line outside a store, Circuity City is saying they are going to be selling the Xbox 360 on Friday. Mobility Today checked with their local store and the manager there had no clue about it. The official Circuit City site has special green boxes saying "Available Friday". If this really is the case, there is no doubt in my mind that people will blitzkrieg Circuit City in hopes of their very own 360. Give your Circuit City a call and let us know what they tell you.

UPDATE: Kotaku confirms that they are only taking a limited amount of pre-orders on Friday and will not be selling the console until the 22nd of November. I too called some Circuit Cities and they said the same thing. Oh well. Fun while it lasted.

XBox 360 to be sold on Friday at Circuit City? [Mobility Today]
Circuit City Page