Schulze Offers To Buy Best Buy

TWICE Staff On Aug 6 2012 - 1:18pm

Minneapolis - Dick Schulze, founder and former chairman of Best Buy, is offering to buy all of the outstanding shares of the company which he does not already own, for a price of $24 to $26 per share in cash.
Schulze is Best Buy's largest shareholder, controlling 20.1 percent of Best Buy shares, according to a statement issued by him this morning. He has developed a business plan that addresses the many challenges Best Buy faces and has held discussions with leading private equity firms interested in participating in the acquisition, according to statement he issued this morning.

Based on these discussions, he plans to finance the proposed acquisition through a combination of investments from the private equity firms, reinvestment of approximately $1 billion of his own equity, and debt financing. Credit Suisse, Schulze's financial advisor, has informed him it is highly confident it can arrange the necessary debt financing, the statement said.

Schulze has also held discussions to see if Best Buy executives, including former CEO Brad Anderson and former president and COO Allen Lenzmeier, are interested in rejoining the company.

The purchase price, which is based on current public information and is subject to due diligence, represents a premium of 36 to 47 percent to Best Buy's closing stock price of $17.64 on Aug. 3, 2012, the statement said.

Schulze spent 46 years with Best Buy and its predecessor company, Sound of Music, after founding the company in 1966. He served as the company's CEO, chairman and a director until 2002. He continued in the role of chairman and a director from 2002 until resigning from the board in June 2012.