Industry Brief : Best Buy Still Unsettled, Board Confirms Founder’s Bid to Buy Back Company

August 7, 2012

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Minneapolis, MN—Best Buy Co. confirmed its board of directors received a letter outlining an unsolicited, highly conditional indication of interest from Richard Schulze, founder and former chairman of Best Buy, to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Best Buy he doesn’t already own for a per-share price of $24 to $26.

The 71-year-old entrepreneur who started Best Buy 46 years ago and owns 20% of it said he wanted to buy the company for around $10 billion. Schulze resigned as board chairman in May after the board announced Hatim A Tyabji would succeed him as chairman and Schulze would assume the honorary position of founder and chairman emeritus. This followed the sudden resignation of CEO Brian Dunn in April; the board reported Dunn had an inappropriate relationship with a female employee that Schulze knew about but did not tell the board.

Best Buy’s board of directors said it would review and consider Schulze’s letter in due course and “evaluate this proposal carefully and will, as always, pursue the best course for its shareholders.” bestbuy.com