Best Buy founder Richard Schulze has been given the green light to move ahead with plans to pursue an acquisition of the company he created more than 45 years ago. The first step in the process is to perform due diligence which is simply an investigation where Schulze is allowed to see the company’s financial records.
The two parties came to an agreement yesterday that will allow Schulze to review the books and present a proposal to Best Buy’s board within 60 days. A source close to the founder suggested that it wouldn’t take long and that he would be prepared to make an offer within days or a week at the longest.
Schulze will have two opportunities to ink a deal through the board. If both of those offers are declined, he will have to wait until January 2013 before he could present a proposal directly to shareholders. If all of these opportunities are rejected, he will be forced to wait a full year before being able to try again. That, according to the source, isn’t likely as Schulze is said to be confident that he will succeed.
The founder has reportedly enlisted the help of four major private equity firms to fund a bid of around $9 billion. KKR Co, Leonard Green Partners, TPG Capital and Apollo Global Management are all said to be in the mix at this point and it’s even possible that Schulze could have additional firms on tap.
A deal to move forward with due diligence was expected last week but those plans fell short of materializing.
