Best Buy plans layoffs at headquarters

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Electronics retailer Best Buy Co (BBY.N), which offered voluntary exit packages to corporate workers in December in a bid to cut costs, said on Tuesday it planned involuntary layoffs at its Minneapolis headquarters.

Employees were told on Tuesday about the layoffs and further details will be released on February 19, Best Buy spokewoman Sue Busch Nehring said in an email.

No information has been shared about the number of jobs or positions that will be affected, she said.

Best Buy said about 500 of its slightly less than 4,000 headquarters workers had accepted the voluntary exit packages.

The company plans to take a charge in its fourth quarter tied to those packages.

Workers whose jobs will be eliminated next month will remain employed for at least 30 days after they are notified of the involuntary layoffs, Busch Nehring said. Some new jobs will be created as part of this process, she added.

(Reporting by Karen Jacobs; Editing by Ted Kerr)