Samsung Might Invest in Best Buy & Vice Chairman Lee Calls Apple's CEO 'Captain Cook'

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Here's some more odd news related to Best Buy. Apparently, Samsung is considering investing in Best Buy. In case you didn't already know this, Best Buy has been struggling over the past few years. This has been because of the continuously rising prevalence of online retailers stealing customers away from big box retailers. However, it appears that Samsung believes Best Buys is crucial to their success here in the United States. We have word that "Samsung has been considering increasing subsidies paid to Best Buy in a strategic move to help the retailer and also increase the exposure of its products,’’ according to Kim Young-woo, an analyst at HMC Securities. This is not surprising considering that Samsung is planning on opening "Samsung Experience" mini-shops within 1,400 Best Buy locations across the United States.

That's not all though. There are also reports that high level Samsung executives have been recently meeting with Best Buy. Here's a quote with the details,

Lee Jae-yong, groomed for Samsung CEO after second-generation leader Lee Kun-hee steps down, said in a Korean media interview: "I recently met with senior executives at BestBuy and discussed pending business issues". This refers to a meet where some of Samsung's top brass were present, like Yoo Boo-keun, co-CEO of Samsung Electronics, and Kim Hyun-suk, Samsung Group’s executive vice chairman.

It would appear that Samsung is considering acquiring an outright stake in Best Buy. As an interesting side-note, Lee was asked about Samsung's continuing partnership with Apple. He only responded with, “Tim Cook (Apple CEO) is being called Captain Cook for a reason.’’ It's hard to tell from this if he was being sarcastic or was actually playfully complimenting the CEO of Apple. According to the report he said it while laughing. What do you think? Does this suggest a thawing between the two companies, or simply more shots fired?

Source: PhoneArena