Best Buy Buys Speakeasy

Electronics retail giant Best Buy is to acquire the broadband provider SpeakEasy for $97 million, it has been announced.

SpeakEasy employs 300 people and last year boasted over 40,000 customers and revenue of $80 million. The company will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Best Buy in 2008.

Darren Jackson, Best Buy executive vice president and chief financial officer, said: "By joining forces with Speakeasy, a company with a true passion for helping entrepreneurs run their businesses, we are making technology more accessible to small businesses by creating a single source for their IT needs." According to Best Buy, SpeakEasy's executive team will remain in place, with Bruce Chatterley as CEO.

Mr. Chatterley said: "We're a vibrant successful smaller business that's growing at a pretty good clip." Speakeasy first opened in 1994 as a Seattle Internet cafe and grew to become a broadband provider, which also offers VoIP services, mainly directed at small businesses.
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Currently Best Buy is America's largest retailer of electronic items. "This is a really interesting combination of companies," states Mark Weibel, EVP of Marketing for Broadband National Inc. who operates the Internets leading comparative shopping website for digital products and services. "Speakeasy's technical expertise matched with Best Buys marketing prowess could make for a very formidable combination."

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