Best Buy 3Q profit sinks, offers staff buyouts

MINNEAPOLIS: Best Buy, the biggest U.S. consumer electronics retailer, says its third-quarter profit sank and it will offer buyout packages to nearly all its corporate employees in an effort to cut costs.

The company also said Tuesday it plans to cut capital spending by 50 per cent in 2009.

It says its profit fell 77 per cent to $52 million, or 13 cents per share, in the three months ended Nov. 29. That's down from $228 million, or 53 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding a charge related to a decline in market value of its stake in U.K. company Carphone Warehouse, it says net income was 35 cents per share.

Revenue rose 16 per cent to $11.5 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 24 cents per share.