Best Buy founder Schulze offers to take company private for roughly $8.5 billion

Richard Schulze, the founder of Best Buy who resigned as chairman earlier this year following an investigation into ex-CEO Brian Dunn’s conduct, has made an offer today to buy the company for $24 to $26 to share — around $8.5 billion at the halfway point. The money wouldn’t all come from Schulze himself: he’d contribute $1 billion personally and says that the remainder would come through a combination of financing and private-equity firms. The offer came in the form of a letter addressed to the big box’s board, asking its permission to perform due diligence on the deal without a hard deadline in place.

Shares of Best Buy closed at $17.64 on Friday, so the offer represents a premium of at least 36 percent — an offer the board will likely have little choice but to take seriously. But will returning Best Buy to private hands improve its waning fortunes at the hands of Amazon, Newegg, and the rest of the internet retail scene that has been eroding its market for years?