Comments on: Best Buy grabs Speakeasy, Covad Smiles

By: Rumor: Best Buy Looking At Covad? « GigaOM

Rumor: Best Buy Looking At Covad? « GigaOM — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:11:34 +0000

[...] 8:07 AM PT | No comments Best Buy (BBY), the large North American electronics retail chain, that recently snapped up Speakeasy, a DSL provider, is now interested in gobbling up Covad (DVW), a large wholesale [...]

By: Daniel Gibbons

Daniel Gibbons — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 04:35:19 +0000

The struggles in the SMB VoIP market certainly emphasize how well CBeyond have executed on their plan in this space.

By: Jonathan Hirshon

Jonathan Hirshon — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 01:57:51 +0000

I currently use SpeakEasy and plan to drop it like a hot tater next month – no WAY am I going to have Best Buy as my ISP…

By: Andrew Fife

Andrew Fife — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 23:37:18 +0000

I can’t really see how 3.6X return over 13 years is a “decent” exit for the VCs. Sure all $27M wasn’t put in on day one, which makes the time value of money on this deal probably look a little bit better, but I doubt any VC would brag about a 3.6X return over a more standard startup lifespan of 5 to 7 years. Any VC firm that returned 3.6X over 13 years on a fund would be out of business.

By: BlogReader

BlogReader — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:15:56 +0000

Best Buy’s chomping at the bit to sniff Speakeasy’s traffic and sell to people googling for HDTVs.

By: dotBen

dotBen — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:52:06 +0000

For many, SpeakEasy has lived up to its name for a 'ask-no-questions' approach to what people have been using their connection for. I'll say no more other than to remind everyone that 50-80% of ISP traffic (ie cost) is p2p.

However, I wonder whether Best Buy, in the face of improving profits and service reliability for it's business customers, will er on the side of the 'prohibition' and turn the ISP into a dry shop.

I think that will ultimately turn many of the 'geeks' away.

By: Michael Buckingham

Michael Buckingham — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:46:17 +0000

I hope they sold the extended warranty to Best Buy!

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:01:50 +0000

I think the BestBuy purchase will further erode what "geek cred" Speakeasy has left. Their service has diminished extensively over the last couple of years and their pricing premium does not merit the service levels offered. I was a customer in varying forms (SDSL, residential DSL, and biz DSL) since 1998 and have been shying away from recommending them for friends / colleagues.

I know of at least two self labeled "geeks" that are planning on moving to another provider.

Myself, I moved over to Sonic.net (here in the Bay Area) late last year.