The closings cover 13% of the retailer's 1,119 stores, and include six of Minnesota's 29 stores. The privately held company declined to specify which locations would be jettisoned. The company will lay off 900 employees, including a "handful" of its staff at its headquarters in Minnetonka, MN.
The music and movies retailer has been revamping its operations since being acquired by Richfield, MN-based Best Buy in June by Sun Capital Partners Inc., a private investment firm in Florida. Sun Capital replaced the management team and has been working on making the retailer profitable again.
Free music downloads, the sharing of music over the Internet and competition from major discount chains, such as Wal-Mart and Target, and other mass retailers, such as Best Buy, has hurt Musicland and other music stores.
Musicland plans to open as many as 50 stores next year. Its total store count could dip to 950 by February, but is expected to rebound to more than 1,000 locations later in the year.
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