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Best Buy names Hubert Joly as new CEO, will take on leadership in September
It's been a rough year for Best Buy -- it's shuttered dozens of stores, seen its founder step down and even lost its CEO, Brian Dunn. Still, the big box retailer hasn't given up hope, and today chose a new chief executive, one Hubert Joly. Until Sunday afternoon, Joly was responsible for Carlson, a hospitality and travel outfit that operates hotels and restaurants in over 150 countries. If you've eaten at a TGI Friday's, you've patronized Joly's old firm. Best Buy seems optimistic, according to the Wall Street Journal, noting that Joly has a knack for turning around companies in trouble. Still, Best Buy will have to get along without its new head honcho until September -- the new boss is French, and is apparently waiting on a visa. In the meantime, Mike Mikan will continue to serve as interim CEO, presumably helping the board of directors sift through Richard Schulze $10 billion rescue plan.
Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn unexpectedly resigns, Mike Mikan takes over
From humble beginnings as a sales associate in 1985 with no college education Brian Dunn climbed the corporate ladder at Best Buy, eventually finding himself at the top of the food chain in 2009 when he took over as CEO. Unfortunately, for this rags-to-riches poster-boy, his reign has come to an end. Dunn and BBY announced today that the long-time employee will be stepping down from his position as chief executive and will be replaced in the interim by board member Mike Mikan. The big box retailer said in a statement that the agreement was mutual and the decision had nothing to do with any disagreements with Dunn regarding "operations, financial controls, policies or procedures." However, with the company struggling so mightily, it's hard to believe that rash of store closings and poor fiscal performance are unrelated to the decision that it's "time for new leadership." Full PR after the break.Update: According to the Wall Street Journal, the company has stated his resignation took place during an investigation into "certain issues" with Dunn's personal conduct.
iPad has halved laptop sales, claims Best Buy CEO (update: he meant netbooks)
Well, the iPad is about one half of a laptop -- both in its form and functionality -- so it makes perfect sense that it'd chop laptop sales by 50 percent. We might be pulling your leg, but Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn isn't. The dude in charge of the yellow label empire has told the Wall Street Journal that his company's internal estimates indicate the iPad has eaten up as much as half of laptop PC market demand. In response to this perceived trend toward more portable gadgets, Brian's outfit is rearranging its inventory to include more e-readers, tablets and smartphones for this holiday season, while slimming down its selection of desktops and HDTVs. Moreover, new demo zones will be set up in-store to allow people to experience the wonders of Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's Move motion-controlled gaming solutions. So it looks like the future's coming, whether we like it or not. Update: It did seem weird to us that the mighty laptop would be that vulnerable to the iPad, and sure enough, our queries with Best Buy were met by the following response: "The paraphrase that was used in the WSJ wasn't really an accurate reflection of what Brian said to the reporter. What Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn said was that we had no firm numbers, but that we speculated there was some replacement of netbooks by iPads going on. We did not provide specifics because we do not presently have the hard numbers on which to base those specifics." So, Brian was not only talking about netbooks, but his words were exaggerated too. Phew, and we were just about to start selling our shares in Dell and HP. You can find his full clarification on this issue after the break.