In what is either a brilliant move or an idiotic one, the Best Buy consumer electronics chain store organization has purchased Speakeasy, a VoIP provider, for US$97M. [via Mashable] Speakeasy is a large independent who has partnered with various companies in the past to increase VoIP sales.

This could be an interesting new development that other large retailers pursue. In Canada, Best Buy stores only started appearing a few years ago (and surprisingly their locations are never mentioned in the TV commercials or print flyers). But there is the Office Depot chain (once called Staples up here). They are not an exact competitor to Best Buy, but I can see them thinking it’d be worthwhile to follow suit, buying their own VoIP provider - especially for small business services.

Then there’s the new The Source stores up here, which have replaced all the Canadian Radio Shack outlets (as far as I know), and they could possibly gain by a similar decision, for the residential market.

Note that these are all American-owned chains. Could giants such as Wal-Mart follow along as well? I don’t think it’d benefit them as much. But then again, maybe there’s money in VoIP services after all.

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