MINNEAPOLIS – Best Buy Company has announced a new five-point-five (b) billion dollar stock buyback program, a dividend increase and plans to add 400 stores to its North American operations.
The moves by the nation's largest consumer electronics retailer come a week after Best Buy reported disappointing first quarter earnings and revised its profit forecast for fiscal 2008 downward in light of a general slowdown in the economy.
Best Buy says it will use part of the new buyback to repurchase three (b) billion dollars worth of stock no later than February 2008. The remaining two-and-a-half (b) billion dollars will be used subject to business conditions and with board approval.
Best Buy plans to fund the buyback with cash, short-term investments and interim borrowing.
The new stock repurchase plan replaces a previous one-and-a-half (b) billion dollar buyback, which was announced in June 2006. The company has already repurchased 462 (m) million dollars in shares and intends to repurchase nearly three-and-a-half (b) billion dollars of stock in fiscal 2008.
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