Best Buy weighing changes to alliance with Vivint

Best Buy is re-evaluating its yearold partnership with Vivint Smart Home, according to people familiar with the matter.

The hundreds of Vivint employees who had been pitching connected-home systems inside more than 400 Best Buy stores were let go last month and Vivint products have been pulled from stores, according to people familiar with the decision. Best Buy’s own salespeople and Geek Squad technicians might be tasked with handling smart-home setups going forward, one of the people said. Vivint employees could be involved in those installations, according to one of the people.

“We are continuing to work with Vivint on ways to better help our customers explore, learn about and buy the latest smart-home products and services,” Best Buy spokesman Jeff Haydock said via email. Blackstone Group-backed Vivint didn’t respond to several requests for comment.

Smart homes are a big potential market for Best Buy, and the retailer has recently carved out space in some of its stores for dueling product displays from rivals Amazon and Google, packed with lights, cameras and other digital gadgets that can be controlled by their respective voice-activated assistants. Best Buy has also made smart-home installations a centerpiece of its new in-home adviser program, where a traveling army of 380 salespeople visit select customers to sell them everything from dishwashers to doorbells.

The smart-home management market is expected to expand to $41 billion in 2020, up from $31 billion last year, Best Buy said in an investor presentation last year. In recent quarters, smarthome devices have been among its fastest-growing product categories, and the floor space Best Buy dedicates to smart home grew by 45 percent last year, helping the retailer fend off encroachment from Amazon.