The rumor mill is running rampant today as word this afternoon is that Best Buy may be interested in buying Netflix for $44 a share. The move comes on the heals of speculation that Blockbuster may purchase electronics chain Circuit City.

At first glance, Best Buy and Netflix would seemingly be strangers to one another’s business model on paper. But delving deep into the marketing possibilities, the move may actually make a lot of sense.

Netflix may have tapped the online market as you can find their advertisements on just about every corner of the web. Best Buy is an aggressive point-of-sale seller, and could push free trial Netflix memberships on paying customers. The Best Buy consumer may be more of the brick and mortar video store type, which opens the door for an entirely new base of members if they can convert them to online rentals.

Also, with the growth of Blu-Ray and more and more households moving up to HDTV, it would only make sense for Best Buy to offer some kind of special trial to customers buying the necessary hardware. I can see a 30-day trial coming with the purchase of a Blu-Ray player, which should be a natural fit. With other rumors floating about Netflix teaming up with the XBox 360 and PS3, an upsale on that hardware is also a obvious play.

Only a few sites have reported this rumor, which may mean that it could be complete and total B.S. Netflix stock has soared a bit lately which could be a sign of someone with some inside info. Nonetheless, we’ll keep an eye out for it and see if anything comes of it in the coming weeks.

Source: Alley Insider