Circuit City Stores Inc. (Richmond, Va.) has rejected a buyout offer from one of Mexico's richest businessmen and one of the computer retailer's larger stakeholders.
Billionaire Carlos Slim Helu and his family-controlled companies (which includes Dallas-based competitor CompUSA) offered to buy Circuit City for $8 a share last week — or roughly $1.47 billion — when the stock was trading at $6.75 (according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission). He owns about 9.2 percent of the retailer's publicly traded stock.
But Circuit City chairman, president and ceo W. Alan McCollough declined Slim's offer, saying the retailer's board “was not interested in discussing such proposals” (again according to the filing).