Best Buy - all in the timing Best Buy has a market capitalisation of $4.1bn, and management expects the company to generate $850m in free cash flow this year. So, if the US consumer electronics retailer were to perform as expected and simply to pay out the cash to investors, they would receive a 21 per cent dividend yield. You can buy 10-year debt from the Greek government and earn only 13 per cent. That seems right. Both are in trouble, but Germany and France may step in to save Greece. Best Buy will not be bailed out by Walmart and Amazon. Shareholders seem to have been hoping for emergency funding from Richard Schulze, the company's founder and holder of a fifth of its shares. The stock rose 16 per cent to about $14 last Thursday on a report that he had lined up a buyout plan. Those gains then dissipated on Friday on news that the company had extended its deadline for a buyout offer until after holiday earnings had been reported. What if Mr Schulze is gambling on dismal holiday sales? Suppose February were to find the stock at, say, $10. In that case, Mr Schulze's stake would be worth $150m less than at present. But the amount of money he would have to raise to control the rest of the shares would be as much as $600m or $700m lower depending on the premium paid (and the premium might be much smaller after a miserable Christmas). The counter-argument would be that if December were to turn out to be cruel, no private equity firm would be willing to invest alongside Mr Schulze's. Is that right, though? A long-term buyer of Best Buy would be someone who believes that there is a place, in Amazon's world, for one good-sized traditional electronics retailer, if that retailer were to be set up correctly. No rational buyer believes that Best Buy, in its current form, is about to hit bottom and then to stabilise. If Mr. Schulze is not too worried about the value of his stake in the short term, time is on his side.