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Best Buy has agreed to acquire GreatCall Inc., a provider of health and personal-response technology for the elderly, for $800 million.
The acquisition marks another step in the electronics chain’s strategy to offer more health-and-wellness products to an aging consumer base.
“We know technology can improve the quality of life of the aging population and [of] those who care for them,” said Best Buy Chairman and CEO Hubert Joly, in a statement on the retailer’s website. “Now we have a great opportunity to serve the needs of these customers by combining GreatCall’s expertise with Best Buy’s unique merchandising, marketing, sales and services capabilities.”
GreatCall sells easy-to-use mobile phones and other devices that enable elderly people to reach medical professionals quickly.
“That’s a market that has never been more relevant,” reads the statement. “Approximately 50 million Americans are 65 or older, and that number is expected to grow [by] more than 50 percent within the next 20 years.”
Best Buy, which operates about 1,000 stores, anticipates closing on the acquisition by the end of its fiscal third quarter.
By Edmund Mander
Director, Editor-In-Chief/SCT
