JB Hi-Fi Is Buying The Good Guys For $870 Million

You’ve seen them pretty regularly on the site, both for their reviews and occasionally for their deals. I’m talking about JB Hi-Fi, which is about to get a whole lot bigger after they announced they would acquire The Good Guys for a whopping $870 million.

The announcement was made via a release to the Australian Securities Exchange early this morning, with the company saying that the purchase of the business was “expected to complete in late 2016 or early 2017”.

According to JB’s investor presentation, The Good Guys has around 101 stores across Australia. Once the buyout is finalised, the combined JB Group should have a larger market share of consumer electronics and home appliances than their closest rival, Harvey Norman.

JB also noted that they expected the slide in physical software sales (music, movies and games) to continue as more and more customers buy digitally. “This decline in traditional physical software sales will have an adverse impact on the Combined Group’s financial performance and position if such decline is not offset against sales growth in other existing or new product categories,” the presentation added.

Richard Murray, CEO of JB Hi-Fi, said that The Good Guys was a “high quality Australian retailer” and that the business was a natural acquisition.

“The acquisition is a very attractive strategic opportunity for JB Hi-Fi since The Good Guys is a highly complementary business which is aligned with our management philosophy and significantly enhances our offering in the $4.6 billion home appliances market,” Murray said.

He added that The Good Guys CEO Michael Ford would continue to lead The Good Guys once the buyout is complete.

The companies combined will have around 280 stories nationwide. JB also noted that the closing of Dick Smith Electronics has “contributed positively to sales growth” in the first two months of the 2016-17 financial year.


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