ConsumerIT - For Europe's High Volume PC Retailers, Distributors & Builders

Best Buy considers reopening a store under the Best Buy banner in Shanghai, China, the Star Tribune reports-- even if it closed all nine Chinese branded stores last February.

Back in February Best Buy did say it "might" reopen 2 stores on a later date.

Then again, Best Buy has a successful business in China with Five Star, a major retailer in the territory.

CEO Brian Dunn says the retailer has a strategy of "driving businesses that have earned the right to additional capital while curtailing activities that we believe will not meet our return on investment thresholds"-- invest in what's growing and slash what isn't, in other words.

Is it logical for Best Buy to reopen shop in China, while it struggles in other international territories and its home US)? Best Buy UK is currently facing "strategic review" as global Best Buy earnings drop by -30% Y-o-Y.

Meanwhile a recent report from the Sunday Express suggests Best Buy might even cut and run out completely from the UK-- if not Europe in general, another loss-maker-- rather than bear the recession storm. Judging from the company policy, that might be very likely.

Go Best Buy May Reverse its Reversal in China (The Star Tribune)

Go Uncertain Future for Best Buy UK?

Blockbuster hits back at Netflix as it announces Blockbuster Movie Pass, a DVD-by-mail and video streaming service in collaboration satellite TV provider Dish Network.

Dish Network saved Blockbuster out of bankruptcy court for $234M 5 months ago.

The timing for the Blockbuster comeback is perfect-- Netflix currently flouders due to the unpopular change in pricing structures (increasing prices by 60%) before dividing into 2 separate businesses, with "Qwikster" handling DVD-by-mail.

Analaysts predict Netflix will lose around 600000 US customers by October 2011.

The Blockbuster-Dish Network package costs $10 monthly (the older Netflix subscription price), only with a catch-- customers have to be Dish Network pay-TV subscribers.

All this before Netflix makes it over here-- which it should be doing at around January 2012 (at least in the UK and Spain)-- while we have no word yet whether Blockbuster has plans to offer a similar deal in Europe.

Go Blockbuster Movie Pass

Go Netflix Splits in Two

Those familiar with the game Cluedo (Clue in No. America) know it as a popular murder/mystery-themed deduction board game...

The object of the basic game is for players to strategically move around the game board (representing a rich mansion), in the guise of one of the game's six characters (Colonel Mustard, for example) collecting clues to deduce which suspect murdered the game's victim-- and with which weapon (dagger, lead pipe, rope and a few other choices) and in what room.

In the case of the murder of the Hewlett-Packard business, we already know several clues. We know which room harbors the killers: the Board Room.

And the weapon: lack of leadership.

And the murderers?

Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal report HP CEO Léo Apotheker could be on the way out just after 11 months on the job, as HP faces decreasing investor confidence in the face of the current PC market slump.

Sources close to the matter mention ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman as potential temporary replacement.

According to iSuppli HP remains the no. 1 global PC maker-- even if is currently under pressure from both the likes of the iPad and low-cost competition forcing prices (and profits) down.

However as we all know HP put its PC division out for sale as part of its "Garage Sale"-- a decision the HP board could be "reconsidering", according to Bloomberg.

Angering investors (and the board) further are the $10.3Bn acquisition of UK enterprise software maker Autonomy and the killing of the webOS business.