Oddly enough, the far-fetched proposal is apt to be accepted. Circuit City has reportedly solicited the services of Goldman Sachs to help "negotiate a deal," which will essentially put the troubled electronics retailer in the hands of someone else. As it stands, Blockbuster looks to be the most interested in picking up the pieces, with billionaire Carl Icahn (Blockbuster's largest shareholder) agreeing to finance the get-together. Of course, it looks as if Blockbuster may be the only outfit interested. Not like that's any surprise, however, as Best Buy itself is having to look to Europe to boost revenues with US consumer spending off from where it once was. The real question here is whether a Circuit City-Blockbuster combo would be the perfect concoction to turn things around for both flagging firms, or will we find that two sinking ships actually do go down faster when anchored to one another?

Just weeks after the rental giant announced an expanded dedication for Blu-ray and even tried selling HDTVs in a test location in Dallas, now the firm is attempting to boost profits by digging into the surging video game market. Presumably in hopes that rental junkies and casual gaming fans alike will actually venture into Blockbuster in order to buy their next Wii, DS, Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, the outfit has announced a new focus that will push the retail video game / game hardware aspect in all of its US-based corporate-owned stores. This includes consoles, a more fleshed out array of games and all the accessories your wallet can handle. Heck, it's even offering up an exclusive 40GB PS3 bundle ($499.99) with the Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray Disc, a PS3 remote, Transformers (the game) and a rental card giving purchasers a free PS3 game / BD rental per week for 12 weeks. Color us completely enthralled.

[Via Joystiq, image courtesy of Portfolio]

Sure, Philippe Starck may not care for the Kindle, but an open letter posted on Amazon's front page suggests he's in the minority. We already knew that the company was having a difficult time filling orders, but we had no idea the wait for buyers would warrant what amounts to a public apology from Jeff Bezos. Apparently, the online superstore is drawing heat for six-week delays on delivery for some customers, and is scrambling to get itself into an "order today, ship today" scheme. The original release of the device sold out in just 5 1/2 hours says the letter, which might explain why no one is hacking it -- no one has it.

[Thanks, Michael]

We've seen 'em in India and the Philippines (among other locales), and if all goes according to plan, we'll be seeing 'em in the US and Europe, too. Reportedly, Intel will be making its Classmate PC available to the everyday joes / janes in America and Europe, though Lila Ibrahim, general manager of the firm's emerging market platform's group, declined to mention what PC manufacturers would be responsible. As for pricing, we're still hearing "sub-$300" tossed around, and while definitive time frames weren't provided, here's to hoping "soon" actually means soon.

[Thanks, Brad L.]

Sony, we know you're trying hard, which is why we think it must sting all the worse when you wake up to sales figures like this. According to a report, the Wii outsold PS3s in Japan 4-to-1 in the month of February, and its games dominated bestseller lists. What does that look like in cold, hard numbers? Nintendo moved 331,627 consoles over the month, while Sony only managed 89,131 units in the same time. But wait, there's more: in January, the ratio was 3-to-1, which means that Nintendo's lead seems to be growing as the year moves forward. Still, Sony could have it worse, the Xbox 360 only scraped up a paltry 14,079 Xbox 360 sales in that same span of time.

Just days after Sony vaulted to the top of North American LCD sales charts, DisplaySearch is now reporting that worldwide shipments of LCD TVs have overtaken CRT TVs for the first time in the history of the universe. More specifically, LCD TV sales rose some 56-percent year over year, and 47-percent of the world's TV market is now held by said technology. Reportedly, the transition from CRT to LCD was seen as a logical one, considering that it could extend down to sizes smaller than 20-inches and satisfy desires for large-screen sets. We know you're just itching to go diving head first into more numbers on the subject, so feel free to toss on those wire-rimmed glasses and hit the read link below.

[Via TGDaily]

So analysts at research firm iSuppli are projecting that the Wii will overtake the 360 as the dominant current-gen console this year, as projected sales would put Nintendo at over 30m units, compared to Microsoft's expected 26m. The PS3 is also mentioned as having the greatest growth potential if it hits projections of 25.7m total units sold this year, but that seems a little optimistic if you ask us. Sony fans might have the last laugh though, as ultimately iSuppli sees the PS3 as the market leader as we enter the next decade. Hey, who knows, Sony might just catch up and recapture that crown -- anything's possible.

Hmmph. Would you look at that? Nary a fortnight after EA proclaimed that Sony's PlayStation 3 would best the Xbox 360 in sales during 2008, said prophecy is already starting to come true. Granted, we're only talking one month so far, but according to new US sales data from NPD Group, Microsoft's console actually slipped to third in the numbers race. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo's darling took home the gold (again) with 274,000 units sold in January, while the PS3 slipped in just 5,000 units below with 269,000. As for Redmond, it only moved 230,000 units last month, but spokesman David Dennis boldly stated that the firm believes its third-place finish to be "an anomaly." Considering that the Grim Reaper is well on its way to claiming the life of the 360s HD DVD add-on while Sony relishes the decision to cram BD drives within the PS3, we're not so sure these figures won't become a trend.

[Via TGDaily, ]

It seems as if Nokia's not the only mega-corp on the block with good news to proclaim to Wall Street today, as the giant from Redmond is proudly announcing record second quarter results and pinpointing "robust holiday sales and enterprise demand drive" as the culprit. In the three months ending December 31, 2007, Microsoft pulled in some $16.37 billion in revenue and $6.48 billion in operating income, which translated to 30-percent and 87-percent growth in each area, respectively. The outfit also took the chance to mention that sales of Windows Vista had surpassed 100 million licenses, and Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms and Services Division, even noted that it was "looking forward to the release of its first service pack later this quarter." You and just under 100 million others, we'd surmise.

Although it does sound as if the much protested plant closing in Bochum, Germany will indeed leave around 2,300 workers sans a job, the street was still loving what Nokia had to talk about today. In its latest earnings report, the firm announced that it raked in €15.7 billion ($22.76 billion) in revenues and €1.8 billion ($2.6 billion) in net profit from October to December 2007. Furthermore, the firm managed to move a record 133.5 million handsets in the aforementioned period, which is up some 27-percent from Q4 a year earlier. That sales surge enabled the handset maker to grab hold of 40-percent of the global cellphone market, and apparently, bigwigs at the company aren't expecting things to plateau in 2008. Needless to say, things are pretty spirited in Helsinki right about now, so feel free to tag the links below for even more jaw-dropping figures.

Read - Nokia 4Q profits up 44 percent, market share reaches 40 per cent
Read - Nokia's Q4 2007 report

Dell must be doing something right, because according to recent sales figures, the PC maker has topped HP as the number one computer supplier in the States. The Texas-based computer-maker saw sales hit 5.35-million units in the fourth quarter of 2007 (a jump of 15.2-percent over the previous year), while HP came in second with a paltry and embarrassing 4.5-million units shipped. Interestingly, the third and fourth-place slots filled by Apple and Acer swapped hands, with Acer taking the lead due to its recent purchase of Gateway, resulting in a crazy 294.2-percent gain. The increase in numbers of the leader, however, seems to stem from Dell's shift out of direct sales to the sale of systems at retailers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart, though internationally HP still rules the roost, garnering a 19-percent market share worldwide. Of course, if they can overtake in America, Dell can certainly turn it around elsewhere. Watch your back, HP.

Wanted: good home for 31-ton robotic dinosaur, completely up-to-date on all immunizations and oil changes. This frisky 40-foot tall, fire-breathing bot answers to the name Robosaurus, and a traumatic youth spent crushing cars in front of thousands of rednecks means this guy needs a lot of love and attention -- along with plenty of open space to graze. All manuals, kits, and accessories are included with adoption, although new owner will assume responsibility for any damage caused by Robo's jaws and their 20,000 pounds of crushing force. Interested parties can bid on this one-of-a-kind companion at the 37th annual Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdate, AZ starting on the 12th.

[Thanks, jo]

We already knew Nintendo's DS was quite the popular handheld, and while the PSP recently overtook it in Japanese hardware sales, the most recent numbers show that the Big N's famed DS has actually rocketed above the mighty PlayStation 2 in lifetime sales (in Japan). Notably, the numbers do combine DS and DS Lite units, but there's no mention of how the systems stack up worldwide. Nevertheless, the feat is a fairly impressive one when you consider how much longer the PS2 has been available compared to the DS, and unless Sony somehow lightens the PS2 load even further and starts bundling them in with cereals, we doubt it will reclaim the top spot anytime soon.

[Via DSFanboy, thanks J]

Just as forecasted, Research in Motion has delivered quite the Wall Street-pleasing results in the fiscal third-quarter. The BlackBerry maker's recently released numbers showed a staggering $370.5 million profit compared to "just" $175.2 million in the same quarter last year. Furthermore, the firm's Q3 revenue rose to $1.67 billion from $835.1 million last year. According to co-CEO Jim Balsillie, it's pretty "clear [that] BlackBerry smartphones have crossed over from being viewed as a primarily enterprise product to being marketed as a strong mainstream offering," and considering the results, it's hard to argue that point. Oh, and just in case you haven't seen enough digits in one post, it should be noted that RIM shipped out more than 3.9 million handsets and added around 1.65 million BlackBerry subscribers in Q3, also. Not too shabby, eh?

Consumers, get your wallets out, because two of your favorite, monolithic companies are about to join forces in a bank-account-decimating move the likes of which you've never known. Dell, your good PC-making buddies, are planning to launch sales nationwide at Best Buy stores over the next few weeks, beginning with the new XPS One, the XPS 1330 laptop, and the Inspiron 1521, amongst others. A handful of other products will be available at the outset, and we can only assume that those numbers will increase as time goes on. A major success for corporate capitalism, and a tempting introduction to a new line of credit for buyers. Spend carefully!