Best Buy Lays Off 950 Canadian Workers; No Stores Closed

Best Buy said Thursday that it's laying off 950 of its Canadian employees, the first major cutback since the electronics retailer reported disappointing holiday sales earlier this month. The company said the layoffs affected 6 percent of its workforce in Canada and will not result in any store closings. At the end of January a year ago, Best Buy closed 15 stores in Canada. It currently has 265 stores in Canada and had 16,000 Canadian employees before the layoffs. The move is another sign of retrenchment from the upward trajectory the consumer electronics giant experienced for much of last year.