Circuit City to meet with renegade investor

By Louis Llovio
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: April 4, 2008

Circuit City Stores Inc. has agreed to meet with renegade investor Mark J. Wattles.

In a letter delivered this morning, Mikael Salovaara, lead director of the Circuit City board of directors, agreed to meet with Wattles and discuss company strategy.

The meeting is in response to a letter written by Wattles Tuesday in which he asked the board to fire Circuit City’s president Philip J. Schoonever because of the company’s performance.

Wattles, president and chief executive of Wattles Capital Management LLC, is founder and former chief executive of Hollywood Entertainment Corp., a video-rental chain, and he owns the 32-store Ultimate Electronics chain.

“It appears to me from your letter and certain other statements that you may not have a full understanding of the company’s current strategy and challenges,” Salovaara wrote. “I think a conversation will help provide a better picture of those efforts.”

Salovaara also wrote that Circuit City has reached out to Wattles before.

A call to Wattles office was not returned.

In Wattles’ letter Tuesday, he chided the senior management team’s turnaround effort and said it has lost its focus and is looking for a silver bullet to solve the woes rather than “focusing on basic retail execution.”