BEST BUY CO., INC. 
By Eric Kellerhals, Media-Saturn's billionaire founder who still owns a stake of close to 22 percent, has been fighting for years with Metro over its management of the chain.
A spokesman said Kellerhals had called on Metro to urgently discuss who should lead the chain after Norberg announced on Tuesday he was stepping down after 27 years at the business, saying he did not feel he had the support of all its owners.
Kellerhals has proposed a member of Media-Saturn's management as an interim replacement for Norberg, his spokesman said, but declined to name who it was.
A Metro spokesman said the company was pleased that Kellerhals was open to dialogue, but added it was surprised that he had mentioned a candidate as it believed the person concerned had declined the nomination.
The spokesman said Metro believed it had already found the best solution after it announced on Tuesday it was putting its management board member Pieter Haas in charge of Media-Saturn on an acting basis.
Media-Saturn, which accounts for about a third of Metro's sales, was slow to move into e-commerce because of the long-running dispute between Metro and Kellerhals, but is now accelerating a push towards online retailing.
The power struggle between the owners escalated recently after Kellerhals called on his own website for applications to replace Norberg when his contract expired at the end of 2015, accusing Metro of moving too slowly.
Media-Saturn, the world's second-biggest consumer electronics chain after Best Buy with more than 950 stores in 17 countries, saw its sales fall 0.7 percent to 6.6 billion euros (5.4 billion pounds) in the last quarter of 2013.
Retail analysts expect Metro to report another drop for the chain that competes with Dixons Retail and Darty Plc when it announces results for the January to March period on Thursday.
(Reporting by Matthias Inverardi, Writing by Emma Thomasson, Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter)
