Best Buy is closing 50 stores and refocusing on becoming a destination where shoppers can try out gadgets and get expert advice.

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ichard Schulze, the founder of electronic retailer Best Buy, has offered to buy out the company in a deal that would value it as high as $8.8 billion. Schulze, who resigned from the company's board in June, said he would offer shareholders $24 to $26 for each of their shares in the struggling company. A deal near that price would be the biggest ever buyout of an U.S. retailer, according to S&P Capital IQ data, topping the $8.4 billion buyout of Toys "R" Us in 2005. Noting that Best Buy is in need of "immediate and substantial changes," Schulze said in a statement, "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."