Best Buy appoints chief executive as takeover talks stall

Shares dropped 10% after the company revealed yesterday that Joly, the former head of hospitality and travel company Carlson, has been appointed on fears over his experience.

Shareholders are also concerned about the abrupt end to takeover talks with founder Richard Schulze at the weekend, Reuters reported.

Joly’s appointment follows months of speculation about who would head the retailer following the departure of former chief executive Brian Dunn in April.

Frenchman Joly will hope to turnaround a business which faces tough competition from rival retailers and online sellers.

He turned around the French business EDS which is now part of Hewlett Packard in the late 1990s and restructured Vivendi’s game business.

He said: “I spent a fair bit of my life moving brick and mortar businesses to be clicks and bricks.”

Best Buy offered Schulze due diligence for a possible takeover at the weekend but he rejected the proposal because of a requirement that would have prevented him from publicly making a bid for the company for 18 months. He is still understood to be interested in the retailer.

Best Buy pulled out of the UK at the start of this year, closing all 10 of its stores, which have since been bought by etailer Kiddicare.