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Following the appointment of Hubert Joly as CEO, Best Buy announced it refused an offer of acquisition from founder (and ex-chairman) Richard Schulze. But now Best Buy grants Schulze access to financial data in order to improve a 2nd offer of acquisition.

Why the change of heart? Earlier in August Schulze offered Best Buy up to $8.8 billion to buy the company he founded 46 years ago. Talks broke down-- but resumed soon after fiscal Q3 2012 results failed to meet expectations, with profits dropping by 91% Y-o-Y to $12 million.

Best Buy same-store sales in both the US and elsewhere stores are also down.

Schulze also has "permission to form an investment group with private equity sponsors" in order to pursue his Best Buy acquisition dreams. Once the the due diligence period kicks off, Schulze has 60 days time to present a "fully financed definitive proposal" of acquisition. Should Best Buy refuse this proposal, Schulze can only try again after January 2013.

Schulze already owns a 20% stake in Best Buy, one analysts value at around $1.4bn.

In the meantime Best Buy will continue closing stores (it plans to close 50 big-box stores by end 2012) and try to slash further losses in order to save up to $800m by fiscal 2015.

The new CEO, a man Best Buy claims has a record in turning the fortunes of companies around, starts his job from September 2012 once he secures a visa.

Go Best Buy Board and Founder Richard Schulze Reach Agreement Permitting Schulze To Form Investment Group And Conduct Due Diligence

Go Best Buy Fiscal Q2 2013 Results

Go Hubert Joly: A New (Best Buy CEO) Hope?

In a perhaps unsurprising move, Lexmark kills its inkjet printer business as part of "restructuring action," closing off a Philippines inkjet supply manufacturing facility and eliminating all global injket development efforts.

The cost cutting measure (one Lexmark hopes will bring annual savings of up to $95 million) also eliminates 1700 jobs worldwide. The company already cut 625 jobs earlier.

The Lexmark inkjet printer business was not a very healthy one-- H2 2012 inkjet revenues for the company are down by -66% Y-o-Y.

The company will instead concentrate on "higher value imaging and software solutions" even if it will continue to "provide service, support, and aftermarket supplies" for inkjet customers.

The Lexmark inkjet business is reflects what is happening to all other printer vendors-- as Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore puts it, the "dead-tree format is dying." According to the analyst, combined Q2 2012 supply and hardware from all major vendors (including Canon, Epson, HP, Xerox, and Lexmark) are down by -6% Y-o-Y, with little or no hope for recovery.

Go Lexmark Announces Restructuring

LG presents two premium IPS monitors at IFA 2012-- the 29-inch EA93 "cinematic display" and the professional 27-inch EA83.

The EA93 handles resolutions of up to 2560 x 1080 and has an unusual 21:9 aspect ratio. LG claims it displays 100% defined sRGB colour space while delivering 300nits brightness, making it ideal for both entertainment and professional situations.

A 4-Screen Split feature allows users to divide the display into 4 segments and Dual Link-Up allows the simultaneous connection of 2 devices to the monitor.

Meanwhile the EA83 aims for more professional use, with 2560 x 1440 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio annd 350nits brightness. It has colour capabilities beyond sRGB, being able to display 99% of the Adobe RGB colour space.

The EA83 also ships with software and hardware colour calibrators.

Go LG Unveils Premium IPS Monitors

We have already seen Samsung's Ultra High Speed Class 1 (UHS-1) 16GB microSD card-- but at IFA 2012 the company has UHS-1 SD and microSD cards in 64GB capacities.

Available in "Plus" or "Pro" classes, the cards can handle read/write speeds of up to 80/40MB per second (SD) and 70/20MB per second (microSD).

The UHS-1 interface is ideal for LTE (Long Term Evolution) smartphones and tablets, allowing high-quality image and video playback directly from memory cards.

Currently only SDXC and SDHC cards designed for pro-camera use carry the UHS-1 designation.

Go High-Speed 64GB UHS-1 Memory Card Released