MINNEAPOLIS -- Best Buy's founder said Monday that he wants to take the electronics retailer private by buying up all of its shares he doesn't already own in a deal that values the company at as much as $8.84 billion.

The news sent Best Buy (BBY) shares up 24 percent in premarket trading.

Richard Schulze also served as the Minneapolis-based company's chairman until resigning in June amid a scandal involving its CEO. Schulze said he wants to pay between $24 and $26 per share for Best Buy, which represents a 36 percent to 47 percent premium over the company's Friday closing stock price.

Based on Best Buy's 339.9 million outstanding shares, the offer values the company at $8.16 billion to $8.84 billion.

Schulze is Best Buy's largest shareholder, controlling 20.1 percent of its shares. At $26 per share, he would pay a total of about $6.9 billion for the rest of the company.

The former executive said he would have preferred to pursue a deal privately, but a deal needs to happen quickly.

"I am deeply concerned that further delay and indecision will cause additional loss of both value and talented leaders who are now uncertain of the company's future," Schulze said in a statement.

• <p> Showrooming -- the troublesome practice for local store owners that finds potential buyers kicking the tires of products before buying them cheaper online -- isn't going away.<br /> <br /> Amazon.com (<a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/quote/nasdaq/amazoncom/amzn">AMZN</a>) reported a 34% spike in net sales during its first quarter on Thursday. Best Buy doesn't operate on the same fiscal calendar as the leading online retailer, but analysts feel that the company's top line will inch less than 3% higher when it reports next month.<br /> <br /> It's not Best Buy's fault. A company with the overhead of manning physical stores can't afford to sell at the prices that nimbler Web-based retailers can offer. The wide availability of the Internet as a research tool also makes the hands-on perspective that local retailers provide less necessary, and in some cases even less desirable.</p>
• <p> Some real-world chains are fighting back through exclusivity. Cheap-chic discount department store operator Target (<a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/quote/nyse/target/tgt">TGT</a>) has been a strong player in stocking up on items that are only available through Target.<br /> <br /> Best Buy doesn't have that luxury.<br /> <br /> Best Buy confirmed on Thursday that it's killing Best Buy Connect, the retailer's private-label mobile broadband service. It never took off, and the service reportedly had just 11,000 customers. Yes, the company has private labels for home theater and other consumer electronics, but it's not as if the merchandise is considered unique. This isn't Sears (<a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/quote/nasdaq/sears-holdings-corp/shld">SHLD</a>) with brand equity for its Craftsman tools and Kenmore appliances.</p>
• <p> Walk into a Best Buy and check out the racks of CDs, video games, books, and movies. All four of those media platforms are losing physical appeal as those industries go digital.<br /> <br /> In Thursday night's quarterly report, Amazon revealed that nine of the 10 best-sellers were digital products. Best Buy may think it's scoring a sale when it sells a tablet or a smartphone, but it's really simply handing over the tools that will result in that shopper relying less on in-store purchases.</p>
• <p> Another nugget in Amazon's report is that 130,000 of the books in its virtual marketplace are exclusive to the Kindle Store. Yes, a lot of that is vanity press stuff from authors who couldn't land real publishing deals, but 16 of Amazon's 100 best-selling e-books were exclusive to its store.<br /> <br /> Apple (<a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/quote/nasdaq/apple/aapl">AAPL</a>), on the other hand, is the poster child of the modern ecosystem. The success of iTunes has turned Apple into the country's largest music retailer. There are now hundreds of thousands of apps in the company's iconic App Store.<br /> <br /> Best Buy has tried its hand at digital distribution of music and movies -- even to the point of buying Napster and CinemaNow -- but that hasn't panned out. Brick-and-mortar chains just don't have the high-tech appeal to launch cool digital ecosystems.</p>
• <p> The worst part about movies, music, books, and games going digital isn't just the empty space that Best Buy will have to fill. The company has enough sharp retail vets to put the space to work with store remodeling plans that are currently in the works.<br /> <br /> The worst part of the migration is that these are the items that forced shoppers to come back to Best Buy. You may only need a new washer once every 10 years, but there are always new DVDs hitting the market every Tuesday. New video games, CDs, and books are also always coming out. As more people replace physical media with digital -- and you do realize that Apple and Amazon are selling millions of tablets every passing quarter -- Best Buy will be a less frequent stop for even its most loyal customers.</p>
• <p> Best Buy conceded in its most recent report that it will have to get serious about lowering prices in the future. Its aggressive expense-shaving efforts will be partly passed on to shoppers in the form of better pricing.<br /> <br /> &quot;We intend to invest some of these cost savings into offering new and improved customer experiences and competitive prices,&quot; Best Buy explained last month.<br /> <br /> The problem is that it will probably never be able to cut its overhead to the point where it's truly competitive with Amazon and even cheaper e-tailers. This will force Best Buy into sacrificing margins on products, but hoping to make a profit by selling extended warranties, obsolescence insurance, and Geek Squad services. It's a plan that sounds fine on paper, but consumers are already tiring of the hard sell during the checkout process for services that they may never need. If Best Buy sees this as its future, it's underestimating what shoppers do when they're annoyed.<br /> <br /> They stop coming back!</p>
• <p> hhgregg (<a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/quote/nyse/hhgregg-inc/hgg">HGG</a>) and Conn's (<a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/quote/nasdaq/conns-inc/conn">CONN</a>) are some of the rare survivors in this field, and it's because they key in on heavy appliances, furniture, bedding, and even lawn care equipment that's harder to secure cheaper online, given the bulk of the items.<br /> <br /> Best Buy naturally sells appliances, but that's just 5% of its business. If Best Buy wants to emphasize big-ticket items that are purchased very infrequently -- thereby taking on the smaller hhgregg and Conn's -- it would probably have to close all but a store or two in each of its major markets. There just isn't enough business for these products to justify Best Buy's existing store base and square footage.<br /> <br /> In short, it's not going to happen.<br /> <br /> Best Buy may be in the process of closing nearly 50 stores over the next few weeks, but there will be more of that in the future unless trends reverse and positive catalysts emerge.</p>
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In his letter to Best Buy's board, Schulze said he's developed a plan to deal with the company's challenges and has talked with private equity firms. Schulze said he would finance the deal through a combination of private equity investments, about $1 billion of his own equity and debt.

Best Buy has been shrinking store size and focusing on its more-profitable products such as mobile phones. It's also trying to combat the so-called "showrooming" of its stores - when people browse at Best Buy but purchase electronics goods elsewhere, especially online.

In April, it announced a major restructuring that includes closing 50 stores, cutting 400 corporate jobs and trimming $800 million in costs.

The same month, then-CEO Brian Dunn left amid allegations that he violated company policy by having an inappropriate relationship with a female employee. An investigation related to the matter resulted in the ouster of founder and chairman Richard Schulze, who knew about the relationship and failed to alert the board or human resources.

In early July, Best Buy said it would lay off 600 staffers in its Geek Squad technical support division and 1,800 other store workers.