Hasta La Gadget!

Best Buy has been selecting a number of products to mark down in price as part of their “Deal of the Day” promotion for several months now, with products ranging throughout all of the different types of merchandise Best Buy carries.

Today’s Best Buy Deal of the Day features a Targus Rotating Case for Apple iPad 2, which features a hard-shell exterior that can provide three viewing positions, rotates and can convert itself into a stand. One thing they probably didn’t mean to advertise in their promotional image for the product was a jailbroken iPad.

The promotional image, which has since received some quick photoshopping, originally had the Cydia application displayed. When you consider how much Apple dislikes jailbreaking their device, and also considering Best Buy is a major retailer for Apple products, you could probably see why that’d be a problem for both companies. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple iBookstore Launched In Japan, Android 4.x Finally Overtakes Android 2.3 Gingerbread,

Best Buy announced its Q4 2013 (fiscal year) earnings today, and it’s not looking incredibly good. The company reported a net loss of $377 million with a revenue of $16.7 billion during the quarter. Compared to a year ago, Best Buy brought in a revenue of $16.67 billion with a net loss of $405 million, so the company actually did a tad bit better this time around, actually.

As for plans to buyout the company and take it private, founder Dick Schulze looks to be reneging on that proposal. Alongside the company’s quarterly earnings announcement, it announced that the deadline for Schulze to make an offer expired yesterday, which means that the company will “continue to focus on its transformation for the benefit of all of its stakeholders.”

We heard back in October that Schulze was working with different equity firms in order to make plans for a private buyout of the electronics retail chain. Buying out the company was said to cost around $11 billion. Schulze has previously stated that he could buy the company for $24-$26 per share, which would value the company between $8.16 billion and $8.84 billion. However, with debt added on, the total bill would round up to about $11 billion.

No reason was given as to why Schulze decided to back out, but there could have been numerous reasons to choose from, including cold feet or the failure in coming to an agreement with equity firms. Either way, it looks like Best Buy will remain a public company after all, and shareholders will still get to have their say in the company.

Best Buy reports Q4 2013 earnings, founder drops plans for private buyout is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Remember back in October when Best Buy announced it would price match online retailers during the holiday season? It looks like the electronics retailer is making that a permanent policy now. Best Buy announced that it would be fighting off “showrooming” by price-matching a handful of both local and online retail competitors permanently.

Starting March 3, Best Buy’s “Low Price Guarantee” policy will go into effect for all Best Buy locations, as well as its website, mobile stores, and even phone orders. The retailer plans to match prices for all local competitors, as well as a total of 19 online retailers, including Amazon, Apple, and Newegg. However, this good news will come at a cost.

Alongside the year-round price matching, Best Buy is lowering its return policy deadline from 30 days to 15 days, which isn’t too big of a deal, because that’s still over two weeks that you have to decide if you want to return something or not, but it may deter some shoppers from buying something too soon, with the fear that the return policy deadline will pass.

However, one of the things that the price matching policy doesn’t apply to are smartphones under contract, but the company says that things such as smartphone chargers. It seems more and more retailers are heading towards this route, with Target offering permanent price matching just last month. Could it soon be the end of ridiculous markups in brick-and-mortar stores?

[via Bloomberg]

Best Buy making online price matching permanent is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Sad news for those of you who were planning to pick up a copy of Fire Emblem: Awakening today, as it seems that a number of retailers in the US aren’t getting their shipments in until later this week. The game was scheduled to launch today in the US, but Game Informer has spoken to some Best Buy and GameStop stores that say they haven’t received shipments yet. Just the same, it seems Amazon is warning potential purchasers of a possible shipping delay, so many players may not be getting Fire Emblem: Awakening today.

Best Buy told Game Informer that it isn’t likely to receive the game until Wednesday, February 6, while GameStop said its shipments might not come in until Friday, February 8. Of course, it’s impossible to check with all GameStop and Best Buy stores, but the GameStop stores we called up they told us the same thing: no shipments until later this week. One GameStop employee said that the games may arrive by Wednesday, but Friday is probably the safer bet.

All of this, it seems, can be blamed on some kind of shipping error. We aren’t entirely sure what’s preventing these stores from receiving their copies of the game, but the problem is big enough that its retail release is now being pushed back a couple of days in some areas. In any case, there are probably still some stores receiving the game today, so if you’ve been hankering for some Fire Emblem action, call up the game stores around you and see if they’ve got it available.

There’s always the digital release too, with the game available right now through the 3DS eShop. It’s a shame to hear about these delays, as Fire Emblem: Awakening is being lauded as one of the best games on the 3DS. Did any of you manage to secure a copy of Fire Emblem: Awakening today, or are you hearing similar things from the store you pre-ordered it at?

Fire Emblem: Awakening retail release reportedly delayed is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

One of Best Buy’s daily deals today is $40 off the Hipstreet Equinox 2. Normally retailing for $180, the 10.1-inch Android 4.0 tablet can be yours this very Friday for a mere $140, which is $40 closer to the roughly zero dollars it’s worth. Remember, kids: a sale and a deal are two entirely different things. More »