Best Buy has announced that it has begun marketing its Musicland subsidiary 'in order to concentrate on the Company's core business and assets.'  Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson said in a statement, 'Over the last year, Musicland has suffered from further declines in CD sales and a continued slowdown in traffic in traditional shopping centers nationwide.  In addition, it has been less successful than we had hoped in selling consumer electronics in its mall stores.'   In association with the planned sale, Best Buy plans to report the chain's results separately as discontinued operations and take a $441 million charge, including a $308 million asset impairment charge. 

 

Musicland is an important retailer of pop culture products, both through its Sam Goody music chain, which retails pop culture paper products, its Media Play superstores, which retail a wide variety of pop culture products, and its Suncoast video stores, which are important retailers of anime, manga, and licensed movie and TV products.  Musicland shuttered 110 stores recently, including 20 Suncoast stores (see 'Best Buy Shutters 110 Musicland Stores').