Circuit City Stores Rejects Buyout Offer

Circuit City Stores Inc. said Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim made a $1.5-billion buyout offer that it rejected because the $8-a-share cash bid was too low.

Slim, who owns 9.2% of the Richmond, Va.-based company, is considering whether to make a fresh proposal for stock in the company he doesn't already own, a spokesman for Slim said.

Slim's June 16 offer, disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, came three years after Grupo Sanborns, the Mexican retailer controlled by Slim, acquired personal-computer chain CompUSA Inc. for about $800 million.

The company's shares rose 68 cents, or 8.5%, to $8.66 on the New York Stock Exchange.