Best Buy To Close 50 Stores

Logo of Best Buy, US-based retail chain (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Best Buy Company posted weaker-than-expected sales for the key holiday quarter and said it would close 50 large U.S. stores, sending shares of the world’s largest consumer electronics chain down 9 percent on Thursday.

Analysts and investors expected more aggressive restructuring efforts from the chain, whose large-format stores have often been termed “white elephants.”

While most industry insiders welcomed Best Buy’s decision to reduce its retail footprint at a time when many shoppers buy their gadgets online, they expected the retailer would have done more.

Read more: http://business-news.thestreet.com/the-mercury/story/best-buy-close-50-stores/1

Two Late-1970s Hitmakers To Play Sands Bethlehem Event Center – Together

Nugent in concert in Naples, Italy, June 1, 2004 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two late 1970s acts that between them have sold 35 million albums and had 14 Top 30 albums and 14 Top 30 hits will play at the new Sands Bethlehem Event Center, the venue announced  this morning.

Ted Nugent, known for the solo hit “Cat Scratch Fever” and “High Enough” with the supergroup Damn Yankees, will join Styx, best known for such hits as “Come Sail Away,” “Babe,” “Lady,” “Lorelei” and “Too Much Time on My Hands” for a show June 29 at the center.

Tickets, at $59.50 to $89.50, will go on sale at 10 a.m. April 6 at http://www.sandseventcenter.com or http://www.livenation.com or by calling 800-745-3000.

Read more: http://blogs.mcall.com/lehighvalleymusic/2012/04/two-late-1970s-hitmakers-to-play-sands-bethlehem-event-center.html

Local Investors Buy Philly Newspapers For $55 Million

The Philadelphia Inquirer-Daily News Building in Philadelphia, PA. Taken from North Broad and Callowhill Streets. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

PHILADELPHIA, PA —  A group of powerful local business leaders announced Monday that they have purchased Philadelphia‘s two largest newspapers from hedge funds for approximately $55 million, a fraction of what investors paid for them in 2006.

It is the fifth time in six years the newspapers are being sold.

The buyers, who include influential New Jersey Democrat George Norcross III, former New Jersey Nets owner Lewis Katz and cable TV mogul H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, said they plan to keep the newspapers’ tradition of strong journalism alive in the digital age.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-philadelphia-newspapers-sold-20120402,0,5831712.story