Dallas, Texas 12/05/2013 (Financialstrend) – Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) had struck a strategic partnership during the Thanksgiving sales period where by the IT giant had set up “Microsoft Windows Stores” at Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) stores. With the shopping frenzy which reached its peak during Black Friday coming to a end this week, the involved parties have been taking stock on the effectiveness of this combining of resources. Apparently both the parties are convinced that their tie up was a major WIN-WIN success, since the recently released Microsoft’s Surface 32GB notebooks gained the top seller slot at Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) during Black Friday sales.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been even more trilled about the tie up since its close competitor Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) products had taken the top billing spot at Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) competitors like Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) and Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT).
Readers who would have visited the Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) stores during this Thanksgiving would have noticed the prominently placed Microsoft’s Windows Stores with floor space of a extensive 1,500 square feet to 2,200 square feet. In these stores, customers had a opportunity to first hand test out and get a real feel of the newly released big budget products and accessories, of Microsoft including “Windows-based tablets and PCs, Windows Phones, Microsoft Office, Xbox One”.
This partnership is a Winning situation for Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) because it allows users to purchase the products online at discounted prices after checking out the stuff at their stores. With the manufacturer run stores in their premises, the retailer is well placed to offer competing prices on these digital devices.
Competition
Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) along with its primary completion like Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), Dollar General Corp. (NYSE:DG) and Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) have come off a better than expected beginning to their holiday season sales. With the retailers getting time to gather their breath and work through their current stock situation and total up their sales from various channels post the week long shopping frenzy in U.S last week, the biggest winners and losers with respect to highest growth in sales are getting called out. Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) is certainly part of the winner group as it has reported increasing its sales over last year by a huge 38% during the thanks giving sales. Even when one considers a larger window of three months, the stock has been outperforming its competition by a huge margin. Its closest competitor has been Wallmart which gained by a even 10% in market value in last 3 months, while Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) gained by close to 15%.
Stock Performance
The S&P 500 index tracked Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) has posted strong gains at the browsers during trading last week, as investors have been stampeding into buying the stock to benefit from the strong sales that the broader retail market in general and Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) in particular have been reporting post the frantic sales in the run up to Thanksgiving holiday shopping and ended earlier this week on Cyber Monday. Last week, the stock posted a strong 8% increase in its market value thereby off setting some of the losses it had suffered during trading in the last 30 days in which it had shed close to 1.1% of its market value. Even more heartening for the long term investors in the stock has been the fact that their investment in the stock 12 months back, have now appreciated by a super impressive 263%. When trading ended for the day yesterday, the shares were trading at $42.8 per share just 4.1% below its 52 week high price bench mark
