Schulze Interest Grows in Acquiring Best Buy

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is back in play. We reported this as one of the companies that could be taken over as soon as this summer, and we now have more news supporting a deal of some sort. Bloomberg has reported this morning that founder Richard Schulze has been recruiting executives to help lead the ailing retailer if he is successful in taking the company private.

The 71-year old Schulze has effectively been Best Buy’s only hope of going private, and his departure from the Board of Directors has led to speculation that he is going to acquire the electronics retail chain in private equity go-private transaction. The biggest problem is that Schulze’s interest has not helped the share price since the first real surfacing of interest. Shares are indicated up somewhere about 7% higher around $19.07 after Friday’s closing bell share price of $17.76. The 52-week trading range is $16.97 to $28.53, but by now you know that year is not very representative as this stock has been gutted and butchered over the past couple of years.

The question to ask is how much the company would demand in a go-private deal. Even at $25 or $30, many shareholders will get crushed with big losses being locked in.

How would you like to be a giant retail showroom, only to have the bulk of people coming in and using your showroom as a physical presence player just to price compare at the Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) website?

JON C. OGG