Grupo Elektra and Best Buy: Cofece authorizes concentration
The Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece) of Mexico authorized a merger between Grupo Elektra and Best Buy International Finance.
As background: on December 15, 2022, Best Buy International Finance (BBlnter), Best Buy Enterprise Services (BBServices), Grupo Elektra, (GEKT) and Nueva Elektra del Milenio (NEM) notified Cofece of their intention to enter into a concentration, pursuant to Article 90 of the Federal Economic Competition Law (LFCE).
Globally, Best Buy has two reportable segments: Domestic and International.
On the one hand, the domestic segment is comprised of the company’s operations in all states, districts and territories of the United States and its Best Buy Health business, and includes the Best Buy, Best Buy Ads, Best Buy Business, Best Buy Health, CST, Current Health, Geek Squad, Lively, Magnolia, Pacific Kitchen and Home and Yardbird brands and the domain names bestbuy.com, currenthealth.com, lively.com and yardbird.com.
All of Best Buy’s former Mexico stores were closed at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2022, and its International segment now consists of all Canadian operations under the Best Buy, Best Buy Mobile and Geek Squad brands and the bestbuy.ca domain name.
The Covid-19 pandemic has had significant impacts, for example, on economic conditions in the markets in which Best Buy operates, customer buying behaviors, the role of technology in people’s lives and the way people meet their needs.
In light of these changes, this company is adapting its strategy to ensure that its focus and resources are closely aligned with the opportunities it sees.
Grupo Elektra
Best Buy’s competitors are primarily multichannel retailers, e-commerce companies, technology service providers, traditional retailers, vendors and mobile operators that offer their products and services directly to customers.
Grupo Elektra is the leading financial services and specialty retailer in Latin America and the largest provider of short-term non-bank loans in the United States. It operates more than 6,000 points of contact in Mexico, the United States, Guatemala and Honduras.
Its financial business consists of Banco Azteca, Seguros Azteca and Afore Azteca.
In addition, in 2012 Grupo Elektra acquired Advance America (now Purpose Financial), a leader in the short-term non-bank lending segment in the United States, and founded Punto Casa de Bolsa, a brokerage subsidiary that operates with the highest standards of security and efficiency in customer service.
By the end of fiscal 2022, Best Buy had 1,144 stores in its domestic and international segments.
