Back in April, Samsung inked a deal with Best Buy for the creation of 1,400 Samsung Experience Shops, but it looks like their partnership isn’t ending there.
On Wednesday, Samsung's vice chairman Lee Jae-yong spoke to the Korea Times, indicating that he sees Best Buy as critical to the Korean giant's plans to further increase market share in the United States. Furthermore, Jae-yong confirmed that he and a couple other high level Samsung executives met with Best Buy senior executives to discuss "pending business issues" – though he didn’t go into any real details about the subject of the meeting.
So what could this "pending business" be about? According to Kim Young-woo, an analyst for HMC Securities, the move could be about investing in the retailer. ”Samsung has been considering increasing subsidies paid to BestBuy in a strategic move to help the retailer and also increase the exposure of its products,'' claims Young-woo.
While we have no proof that such a deal is really going down, we have to admit that this could make a lot of sense for both Samsung and Best Buy.
With e-tailers such as Amazon eating into Best Buy's profits in recent years, Best Buy isn’t the giant it once was and so an extra cash transfusion could be very beneficial for the retailer. For Samsung, this could give the company more control over the way its products are marketed at Best Buy. With a larger influence over Best Buy, Samsung could have a way to at least somewhat match the strength of Apple’s own retail presence.
For now it's important to remember that the rumored Samsung/Best Buy deal is unconfirmed, and therefore speculation is advised. As always, we'll be sure to keep you up to date as we learn more.
What do you think, would an even deeper partnership between Samsung and Best Buy make sense?
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