Best Buy Founder Offers To Purchase Company & Take It Private

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fulfilled many predictions Monday as he made a bid to buy up all the shares he doesn't already own to take the company private.

The Monday morning announcement sent stocks up by more than 20 percent in premarket trading.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Schulze said he wants to pay between $24 and $26 per share, which represents a 36 percent to 47 percent premium over the company's Friday closing stock price. Based on the 339.9 million outstanding shares, Schulze's offer values the company between $8.16 and $8.84 billion.

Schulze is the largest company shareholder, controlling 20.1 percent of the shares. In a statement Monday morning, Schulze said the deal needed to be done quickly.

"There is no question that now is the moment of truth for Best Buy and that immediate and substantial changes are needed for the company to return to its market-leading ways," he said. "After assessing all of my options, it is my strong belief that Best Buy's best chance for renewed success is to implement with urgency the necessary changes as a private company."

A Business Wire release said Schulze has come up with a plan that addresses challenges Best Buy is facing and has met with private equity firms interested in participating.

As many will remember, , cutting employees and downsizing stores. Most recently, the company in the stores, corporate campus and Geek Squad.

As far as financing goes, he plans the acquisition through a combination of investments from the private equity firms, reinvestment of approximately $1 billion of his own equity, and debt financing, according to the Business Wire release.

"I am confident we can bring back Best Buy," Schulze said in his statement. "And that the name over the door will once again mean something special to our customers and employees."

Richfield Patch will update readers if more information becomes available.