Best Buy Co., Inc. Confirms Receipt of Unsolicited Indication of Interest

Press release:

Best Buy Co., Inc. Confirms Receipt of Unsolicited Indication of Interest

Minneapolis, August 6, 2012 Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) today confirmed that its Board of Directors has received a letter requesting due diligence and outlining an unsolicited, highly conditional indication of interest from Richard Schulze, former chairman of Best Buy, to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Best Buy that he does not already own for a per-share price of $24 to $26.   This has come through a public letter addressed to the Board.  Best Buy's Board of Directors will review and consider the letter in due course, consistent with its fiduciary duties, in consultation with its financial advisors, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan and its legal advisor, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.  Best Buy said that its Board of Directors will evaluate this proposal carefully and will, as always, pursue the best course for its shareholders. About Best Buy Co., Inc. Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is a leading multi-channel global retailer and developer of technology products and services. Every day our employees - 167,000 strong - are committed to helping deliver the technology solutions that enable easy access to people, knowledge, ideas and fun. We are keenly aware of our role and impact on the world, and we are committed to developing and implementing business strategies that bring sustainable technology solutions to our consumers and communities. For information about Best Buy, visit http://www.bby.com and to shop at Best Buy, visit http://www.bestbuy.com. #  #  #

Geek Squad® Launches Partner Program to Expand Technology Support for Small Businesses

Geek Squad® Launches Partner Program to Expand Technology Support for Small Businesses

Geek Squad Partner Website to Provide Program Insights, Partner Registration RICHFIELD, MINN., March 27, 2012 - Geek Squad,® Best Buy's 24-hour tech support task force, announced today that it will now offer services and technology support to small businesses (SMBs). Through the Geek Squad Partner Program, Geek Squad will work with third-party sellers to provide services for their own customers, including Geek Squad Office Support which features Geek Squad Agents available for unlimited 24/7 support via phone, online chat, remote, and, with an option to include on-site support. Geek Squad has developed a SMB program that is easy to do business with and provides partners with the tools to make them successful. The Partner Program targets partners who focus on SMBs, to sell the PC, mobile, networking and infrastructure support services.  Target partners include carrier-like master agents, IP telephony resellers and wiring and cabling resellers. And the Partner Program site, http://partnerprogram.geeksquad.com offers tutorials, trainings, sales environment videos and as well as registration. "Geek Squad was founded 17 years ago as a small business technology service and support task force," said George Sherman, senior vice president, services, Best Buy. "Today, our strategic priorities to grow our services business have set the stage to leverage its heritage as a small business resource.  With our service offerings, the expertise of our Geek Squad Agents nationwide, and our solid brand reputation, we believe Geek Squad is uniquely equipped to partner with the resellers community to meet the needs of small business customers today." The Geek Squad Partners Program service plans are designed to help customers with diagnostics and repair, client and server administration, and network integration, including network, firewall, VPN, and server support as well as data backup and transfers. Geek Squad Office Support currently offers two plans: the Standard Plan with unlimited 24/7/365 phone and online support for $24.99 per month per seat, and the Advanced plan with unlimited 24/7/365 phone and online support plus on-site agent support for $49.99 per month. Earlier this year, Best Buy expanded its services capabilities for the estimated $40 billion SMB market when it acquired mindSHIFT Technologies, which provides managed IT, cloud, data center and other professional services across the United States, About Geek Squad Since its expansion nationally in 2004, Geek Squad has grown to nearly 20,000 technicians who support install and repair for consumers and small businesses alike, including computing, home theater, auto electronics, mobile devices and appliances. Geek Squad technicians are available at Precincts in all Best Buy U.S. stores, through house calls and and via online chat, remote support or over-the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. About Best Buy Co., Inc. Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) is a leading multi-channel global retailer and developer of technology products and services. Every day our employees - 180,000 strong - are committed to helping deliver the technology solutions that enable easy access to people, knowledge, ideas and fun. We are keenly aware of our role and impact on the world, and we are committed to developing and implementing business strategies that bring sustainable technology solutions to our consumers and communities. For additional information about Best Buy, visit http://www.investors.bestbuy.com/.

Adobe Simplifies Social Marketing

Adobe Simplifies Social Marketing

For immediate release

Adobe Social Delivers a Single Product for Ad Buying, In-depth Analytics, Content and Application Publishing, and Social Media Monitoring

SALT LAKE CITY, Adobe Digital Marketing Summit — March 21, 2012 — Adobe Systems Incorporated(Nasdaq:ADBE) today introduced Adobe® Social, a new product within the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite. Adobe Social combines social publishing and engagement with monitoring, social ad buying and analytics that can attribute social activity to business results. Adobe is giving those with social marketing responsibilities – digital marketers, community managers, customer service, public relations, ad buyers, analysts and others – a single platform to align and collaborate around the management, measurement and optimization of their social media strategies, and does so in the context of all other digital marketing efforts.

Adobe Social builds on the social media management technology Adobe acquired earlier this year as part of the Context Optional/Efficient Frontier acquisition, as well as the social media monitoring and analytics of Adobe SocialAnalytics. Adobe Social will expand this year with additional social marketing features as well as integrations with other products within the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite.

With Adobe Social, digital marketers can now accomplish the following with a single product:

·         Streamline and centralize publishing across social platforms

·         Automate targeting and personalization of content and experiences in social applications and across social platforms

·         Seamlessly integrate Sponsored Story ad creation within the publishing workflow to maximize the reach of important content and campaigns

·         Monitor and moderate conversations both within your communities and anywhere it happens on the social Web

·         Import analytics data from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, blogs and other social platforms into Adobe Social and tie social activities to business results

·         Identify and engage key influencers to drive positive conversations about your brand

·         Monitor the sentiment of conversations and receive alerts on relevant trends

·         Easily create and deploy social apps, such as contests or forms, without the need for design or development resources

·         Directly measure across the customer journey how social media interactions and engagement drive purchase behavior

Social Ad Campaign Optimization
The capabilities of Adobe Social are complemented by technology acquired from Efficient Frontier, which brings social ad buying and social campaign optimization to the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite. This technology provides multi-channel campaign management and optimization across the leading digital ad marketplaces. In addition to search, display and Facebook support, the former Efficient Frontier technology now supports campaign management and optimization capabilities for LinkedIn Ads.

Quotes
Brad Rencher, senior vice president and general manager, Digital Marketing Business, Adobe

·         “The sheer scale of word-of-mouth that can be accomplished on social media can become a powerful boost or tragic descent for any company and is best managed if a company’s social marketers are in lock-step. Adobe Social brings to social marketing the control and accountability expected across other digital channels. The ultimate aim is to help social media as a marketing channel mature and prove its worth alongside other digital marketing investments.”

Gretchen Fox, vice president, Social Media, LiveNation

·         "In our industry, fans have tremendous passion about the artists they love to see and theshows they attend. Our goal with social media is to engage with our fans and give them ways to connect with each other around their concert experiences. The ability of Adobe Social to reveal deeper connections across thesocial activities of our fans and manage key business results and hundreds of Facebook pages and Twitter profiles across a single platform is incredibly valuable."

Mary Wardley, program vice president, CRM Applications, IDC

·         “With social marketing, companies are building awareness and relationships, driving engagement and transactions and creating loyalty.Unfortunately, this is often a siloed and disjointed effort, in no small part because companies are using point products for different pieces of social marketing. The ability to manage all aspects of social marketing in a manner that allows for the ability to measure performance alongside other digital marketing initiatives should be a goal for every digital marketer serious about social.”

Availability
Adobe Social, a new offering within the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite, will be available in the latter half of 2012.

About the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite
The Adobe Digital Marketing Suite offers an integrated and open platform for online business optimization, a strategy for using customer insight to drive innovation throughout the business and enhance marketing efficiency. The Suite consists of integrated applications to collect and unleash the power of customer insight to optimize customer acquisition, conversion and retention efforts as well as the creation and distribution of content. For example, using the Suite, marketers can identify the most effective marketing strategies and ad placements as well as create relevant, personalized and consistent customer experiences across digital marketing channels, such as onsite, display, email, social, video and mobile. The Suite enables marketers to make quick adjustments, automate certain customer interactions and better maximize marketing ROI, which, ultimately, can positively impact the bottom line.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend & Share Repurchase Program

Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program

Expects to Spend $45 Billion Over Three Years

CUPERTINO, California—March 19, 2012—Apple® today announced plans to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program commencing later this year.

Subject to declaration by the Board of Directors, the Company plans to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012.

Additionally, the Company’s Board of Directors has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in the Company’s fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012. The repurchase program is expected to be executed over three years, with the primary objective of neutralizing the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs.

“We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You’ll see more of all of these in the future,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program.”

“Combining dividends, share repurchases, and cash used to net-share-settle vesting RSUs, we anticipate utilizing approximately $45 billion of domestic cash in the first three years of our programs,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “We are extremely confident in our future and see tremendous opportunities ahead.”

Apple will provide live streaming of a conference call to discuss its plans beginning at 6:00 a.m. PDT on Monday, March 19, 2012 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/call31912. The Company will not be providing an update on the current quarter nor will any topics be discussed other than cash. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.

This press release contains forward-looking statements including without limitation those regarding future business outlook and plans for dividends and share repurchases. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ. Risks and uncertainties include without limitation the effect of competitive and economic factors, and the Company’s reaction to those factors, on consumer and business buying decisions with respect to the Company’s products; continued competitive pressures in the marketplace; the ability of the Company to deliver to the marketplace and stimulate customer demand for new programs, products, and technological innovations on a timely basis; the effect that product introductions and transitions, changes in product pricing or mix, and/or increases in component costs could have on the Company’s gross margin; the inventory risk associated with the Company’s need to order or commit to order product components in advance of customer orders; the continued availability on acceptable terms, or at all, of certain components and services essential to the Company’s business currently obtained by the Company from sole or limited sources; the effect that the Company’s dependency on manufacturing and logistics services provided by third parties may have on the quality, quantity or cost of products manufactured or services rendered; risks associated with the Company’s international operations; the Company’s reliance on third-party intellectual property and digital content; the potential impact of a finding that the Company has infringed on the intellectual property rights of others; the Company’s dependency on the performance of distributors, carriers and other resellers of the Company’s products; the effect that product and service quality problems could have on the Company’s sales and operating profits; the continued service and availability of key executives and employees; war, terrorism, public health issues, natural disasters, and other circumstances that could disrupt supply, delivery, or demand of products; and unfavorable results of other legal proceedings. More information on potential factors that could affect the Company’s financial results is included from time to time in the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of the Company’s public reports filed with the SEC, including the Company’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 24, 2011 and its Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2011. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective dates.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.