Struggling Best Buy Co. has agreed to give founder and former chairman Richard Schulze more time to make a takeover bid for the electronics chain.
The agreement allows Schulze, the company’s biggest shareholder, to wait until the end of the holiday season and fiscal year before making an offer.
Best Buy said the extension “is in the best interests of shareholders” and will give Schulze and potential partners more time for due diligence on the company. Under the new terms, Schulze can make a proposal anytime in February, extending his previous deadline of mid-December. Then the board of directors will have 30 days to consider the offer.
In August, Schulze had offered to take the company private for $24 to $26 a share, a deal that could have been worth as much as $8.84 billion. Best Buy eventually agreed to open its books so Schulze could dig deeply into its finances before making another offer. Complicating any potential deal is the relationship between Schulze and Best Buy’s board, which Schulze led as chairman until a scandal involving its then-chief executive forced him to step down in June.
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