Business & Tech

Deadline for Best Buy Founder to Acquire Company Expires

The company said its moving forward with "transforming" the company.

Richfield-based Best Buy is staying a public company for now, and is still working on digging itself out of a rough financial hole.

The deadline for founder Dick Schulze to make an offer to purchase the company expired Feb. 28.

"The company received no such offer and will continue to focus on its transformation for the benefit of all of its stakeholders," Best Buy said in a statement.

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Schulze, who stepped down as board chair in June 2012, announced his desire to buy back the company and take it private last summer. Schulze stepped down as chair after an investigation found he failed to alert the board of allegations that former CEO Brian Dunn had an inappropriate relationship with a 29-year-old female staffer.

According to Bloomberg, an unnamed source said Schulze could make one last ditch effort to make an offer, but it's unlikely. The New York Times cited Schulze's inability to line up the necessary debt and equity financing as the deal killer.

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As for continuing the company's transformation, Best Buy announced it was cutting 400 corporate jobs on Tuesday, Feb. 26. CEO Hubert Joly said this was the first phase of the $725 million cost-cutting plan announced last fall. The company's work-from-home progam was also eliminated, giving way to Joly's all-hands-on-deck approach.

In addition, the company announced its fourth-quarter earnings March 1, which showed the company was still losing money but making good progress.

According to the Pioneer Press, the fourth quarter beat Wall Street estimates and recorded the first quarterly rise in U.S. same-store sales in nearly three years. Currently, shares of Best Buy are up about 40 percent in 2013.

Richfield Patch will continue to cover the local company in the coming months.

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