Best Buy announce new CEO: 'turnaround expert' Hubert Joly - KMSP-TV

Minnesota's Best Buy Co. announced the hiring of a new CEO Monday, one day after a takeover bid by company co-founder Richard Schulze was halted.

Hubert Joly, "turnaround expert" and former CEO of global hospitality company Carlson, is the new CEO and president of the nation's largest electronics chain.

Carlson operates such businesses as Radisson and T.G.I Friday's. The company announced Sunday that Joly resigned from his post.

Joly takes over for Mike Mikan, a board member serving as interim CEO since April, when then-CEO Brian Dunn left Best Buy because of an "improper relationship with an employee."

"Hubert was an outstanding candidate for this position and I am confident he will be a great fit for Best Buy," Hatim Tyabji, chairman of Best Buy's board, said in a statement. "Hubert's range and depth of experience in transforming companies is exactly what the company needs at the moment, as is his energetic, imaginative and experienced leadership in executing strategies."

Joly has developed a track record of successful turnarounds and growth in the media, technology and service sectors in the last 15 years.

Best Buy is focused on fending off the fate of its rival Circuit City, which went bankrupt in 2009. It's scaling back store size to focus on more-profitable products such as mobile phones. In March it closed 50 stores, cutting 400 corporate jobs and trimming $800 million in costs as part of restructuring efforts. In early July, Best Buy said it would lay off 600 staffers in its Geek Squad technical support division and 1,800 other store workers.

Dunn left in April as he was investigated for a relationship with a 29-year-old female employee.

Schulze, Best Buy's largest shareholder with a 20 percent stake, made a takeover offer for the chain in early August, offering $24 to $26 per share. Best Buy said it was considering the offer, which values the company at $8.84 billion.

According to a Best Buy statement Sunday, certain terms for acquisition were to proceed. A 60-day deadline for the founder to bring forward a fully financed proposal was made, but talks stalled.

"The board showed great flexibility in the details around how an agreement with Mr. Schulze could be implemented so as not to limit his ability to make a definitive proposal for the company that was in the best interest of the shareholders," according to Sunday's statement from Best Buy. "Mr. Schulze did not accept the company proposal."

In response, Schulze issued his own statement: "I am disappointed and surprised by the Best Buy Board's abrupt termination of our discussions. For the record, we engaged in good-faith negotiations with Best Buy's Board and its advisors over the weekend and expected to conclude this matter before the company's earnings announcement early this week," he wrote.

The company is scheduled to release second-quarter results Tuesday.