Best Buy Reports Q4 2013 Earnings, Founder Drops Plans For Private Buyout

Best Buy announced its Q4 2013 (fiscal year) earnings today, and it's not looking incredibly good. The company reported a net loss of $377 million with a revenue of $16.7 billion during the quarter. Compared to a year ago, Best Buy brought in a revenue of $16.67 billion with a net loss of $405 million, so the company actually did a tad bit better this time around, actually.

As for plans to buyout the company and take it private, founder Dick Schulze looks to be reneging on that proposal. Alongside the company's quarterly earnings announcement, it announced that the deadline for Schulze to make an offer expired yesterday, which means that the company will "continue to focus on its transformation for the benefit of all of its stakeholders."

We heard back in October that Schulze was working with different equity firms in order to make plans for a private buyout of the electronics retail chain. Buying out the company was said to cost around $11 billion. Schulze has previously stated that he could buy the company for $24-$26 per share, which would value the company between $8.16 billion and $8.84 billion. However, with debt added on, the total bill would round up to about $11 billion.

No reason was given as to why Schulze decided to back out, but there could have been numerous reasons to choose from, including cold feet or the failure in coming to an agreement with equity firms. Either way, it looks like Best Buy will remain a public company after all, and shareholders will still get to have their say in the company.