Best Buy founder offers $8.5B to take company private

The founder of Best Buy has offered to buy the company for around $8.5 billion, reports say. Richard Schulze, who resigned as company chairman after ex-CEO <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/264198==http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/04/10/best.buy.ceo.target.of.internal.probe/" rel='nofollow'>Brian Dunn</a> was investigated for "personal misconduct" issues, has offered to pay $24 to $26 per share for the retailer in an effort to take the company private, according <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/264199==http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-06/best-buy-founder-offers-26-a-share-to-buy-retailer.html" rel='nofollow'>to</a> <em>Bloomberg</em>. Best Buy has confirmed receiving the proposal and says it will be considering it in the near future. <br><br>Schulze held over 20 percent of the company as of June, and plans to put forward $1 billion from that stake for the deal. The remainder will come from "premier private-equity firms" claimed to have a "deep experience in retail," as well as debt financing. According to Minnesota corporate law, permission from company directors is required in order to form a group for a more complete offer; this is requested in Schulze's offer letter, which has no apparent deadline set. A source close to the story elaborates that Schulze entered into negotiations for the board's permission during the last few weeks, but was unsuccessful due to the board claiming it wasn't a good time to go private. Best Buy is searching for a <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/264200==http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/04/10/best.buy.ceo.agrees.to.step.down/" rel='nofollow'>new CEO</a>, and asking for three more weeks to consider the matter further.

As of May 5th, Best Buy had about <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/264201==http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/03/29/best.buy.shifts.from.tv.to.mobile.after.loss/" rel='nofollow' target="_self" title="">$1.7 billion</a> in debt, and is currently going through a <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/264202==http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/04/15/best.buy.lists.big.box.store.closures/" rel='nofollow' target="_self" title="">major restructuring</a> of its operations in order to save $800 million by the 2015 fiscal year.

Considering the stock is sitting at around $19.50 as I write this, I'd take the $24 per share he's offering (if I had BB stock, which I don't).

After all, BB will be out of business by this time next year. :lol:

Seriously, Best Buy sucks more than Hoover in a metropolitan dark alley after a filter change!!