Best Buy's Founder Is Back At The Company After A Failed Buyout Bid

Best Buy co-founder Richard Schulze is returning to his chain of consumer electronics retail stores, according to the company.

Schulze had been preparing a buyout bid for months, but he and a group of investors never managed to put together a formal offer.

Now, he'll be chairman emeritus.

Schulze has nominated two former Best Buy executives to join the company's board: former CEO Brad Anderson and former COO Al Lenzmeier.

It seems that Schulze has deemed new CEO Hubert Joly, who joined the retailer in August from his job at the helm of hospitality company Carlson, worthy enough to move Best Buy forward.

“Over the past several months, I have come to know and respect Hubert, and have a high regard for the work he and his executive team are doing to revitalize Best Buy for the benefit of all stakeholders,” said Schulze in a release. “My dedication to the company that I founded and love is unwavering and, together with Hubert and the Board, I determined that the best way to support Best Buy would be to return in support of the initiatives underway.”

Joly doesn't come from a retail background, but he's an accomplished turnaround manager. He has already made quite a few big changes in his few months at Best Buy.

He hit headquarters with a round of job cuts and killed the company's "Results Only Work Environment" (ROWE), which allowed employees work from wherever they wanted as long as they got the job done.

Best Buy also announced a key price-matching initiative to destroy the threat of "showrooming" — the phenomenon of customers using physical stores to view products, then making the actual purchase online.

Schulze, who had been chairman until last May, had left the board in June after an internal investigation exposed an inappropriate relationship between then-CEO Brian Dunn and a female employee.