Is GameStop A Best Buy For Best Buy?

Dow Jones cornered Best Buy’s CFO at an investor conference and asked if he’d comment on speculation the retailer might buy GameStop. Ryan Robinson declined to do so, but said some things that still keep the subject alive.

“What I think is something that we’ve missed in the industry and is something other participants have been doing is the proportion of business that is used,” Robinson told DJ Newswires. “We’ve not developed the capability to the extent that other participants have. It’s a very margin-rich portion, so I think there’s opportunity in that business.”

This is all in response to the site Bloggingstocks.com, which speculated on Tuesday that GameStop could be an acquisition target. Of course, it might also cost north of $US4 billion to do that, which is dough Best Buy doesn’t have. Leveraging the deal or doing a stock swap then commits Best Buy to the bricks-and-mortar game retail business for the long term, and Robinson noted the industry’s shift toward digital distribution. He also pointed out the company’s test of in-store kiosks that buy back used games.

Best Buy US CFO: Used Video Games ‘Strategically Interesting’ [Dow Jones Newswires on The Wall Street Journal.com]