Best Buy Co. Inc. founder Richard Schulze has recruited four big-name private equity firms – KKR & Co., Leonard Green & Partners, TPG Capital and Apollo Global Management – to help bankroll his $8.8 billion plan to buy the company, the Star Tribune reports.

Best Buy founder Richard Schulze will likely make an initial offer to take the company private next week, the Star Tribune reports. That's after CEO Hubert Joly is expected to present his strategy to investors in New York. Joly had to postpone the meeting with Wall Street analysts after the destruction of Hurricane Sandy.

Despite some opposition from board members, Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly has agreed to let company founder Richard Schulze and his team of potential investors to interview eight to 10 key executives, the Star Tribune reports. Schulze, Best Buy's largest shareholder, has until mid-November to make a buyout offer to take the struggling Richfield-based electronics retailer private. He is under a 60-day deadline to present a proposal to the company’s Board of Directors.

Richfield-based Best Buy Co. Inc. and its founder Richard Schulze have reached an agreement that gives Schulze permission to review the company's financials and form an investment group to finalize an official takeover bid, Forbes reports. If the initial proposal is rejected, Schulze has agreed to wait until January 2013 to pursue his plan to buy the struggling electronics giant. Schulze has 60 days to present a fully financed definitive proposal to Best Buy's Board of Directors.

Best Buy's new Chief Executive Officer Hubert Joly outlined his five-point strategy, called "Renew Blue," to turn around the Richfield-based consumer electronics chain before he met with Wall Street investors in New York Tuesday afternoon, the Business Journal reports.

Best Buy Co. founder Richard Schulze, who stepped down as chairman this year, has offered to take the electronics retailer private at $24 to $26 a share, Bloomberg reports. Credit Suisse Group AG, Schulze’s financial adviser, is confident it can obtain financing for an offer, according to a letter sent to the board Monday. “I have been actively exploring all available options for my ownership stake,” Schulze, 71, said in the letter. Best Buy shares surged as much as 34 percent in early trading.

Richard Schulze may have trouble financing his offer to buy up all the shares of Best Buy. He'd need to take on an estimated $7 billion in debt to swing the deal. That prospect led both S&P and Fitch to further reduce Best Buy's already poor credit rating.