(By Balachander) Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE:BBY) has appointed Hubert Joly, the former chief executive of hospitality and travel company Carlson, as its new CEO and president. Shares retreated 4.19 percent in premarket trading on Monday.
Joly's appointment comes at a time when Best Buy's founder Richard Schulze has offered to take the consumer electronics retailer for $24 to $26 a share, valuing the company as high as $8.8 billion.
Richfield, Minneapolis-based Best Buy said Joly is expected to assume his role as CEO in early September.
Mike Mikan, a member of the Board has served as interim CEO since April when former CEO Brian Dunn resigned Best Buy over allegations of personal misconduct.
Best Buy is contending with significant structural limitations in its business model and faces intense competition from online retailers.
The company's comparable store sales, a key metric for retailer performance, have been on the downtrend for seven straight quarters.
Since June 2009, the company's stock has fallen more than 30 percent, and it has dropped 59 percent in the past five years and 22 percent in the last one year.
Last week, Schulze repeated his request to the consumer electronics chain's board for accessing financial information, after the board dismissed his acquisition proposal. In response, the board dismissed the proposal as a "highly conditional indication of interest".
Joly, who has been president and chief executive officer of Carlson since 2008, resigned from the position on Sunday.
The stock closed at $20.27 on Friday. Shares have been trading in the 52-week range of $16.97 to $28.52.