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$5 Billion Blockbuster Wants To Buy $12 Billion Circuit City
Written by Evan Schuman
April 14, 2008
Blockbuster is trying to acquire Circuit City--a chain that is reporting twice its annual revenue--by offering a 50 percent per-share premium, Blockbuster announced early on April 14.
Blockbuster's statement said it has been talking with Circuit City for months, but "Circuit City has failed to provide the due diligence necessary to allow Blockbuster to make a definitive proposal."
In a thinly veiled threat of a potential hostile takeover attempt, Blockbuster's statement said "Blockbuster is making its proposal public because it believes the shareholders of Circuit City should have the opportunity to participate in determining the destiny of the company."
Circuit City is more than twice as large as Blockbuster. The company reported some $12 billion in revenue for its last full fiscal year, compared with the $5.5 billion reported by Blockbuster for its last full fiscal year. And both companies have been struggling with profits, with each reporting losses for last year. |
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Evan Schuman is the former retail technology editor for eWEEK.com, PCMagazine, CIOInsight and retail reporter for RISNews and Consumer Goods Technology. Having covered IT issues for 21 years - and other stuff like legal affairs, politics, Wall Street and the environment for about eight years before that - Schuman is in a good position to gripe about technology trends and sometimes accidentally make a good point.
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