Dive Brief:
- Best Buy Health is laying off 161 workers, the company said in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed on Tuesday in California.
- The cuts are effective on Sept. 12, according to the WARN notice.
- The layoffs come as the retailer’s healthcare segment has faced financial challenges and shortly after Best Buy sold home care firm Current Health.
Dive Insight:
In late June, Best Buy confirmed that it had divested Current, which the electronics retailer had purchased for about $400 million in 2021, back to co-founder Christopher McGhee.
The company’s healthcare segment still includes its Lively senior support brand and emergency response devices, a spokesperson said at the time.
Under Best Buy ownership, Current had inked deals to support hospital-at-home programs with health systems like Mass General Brigham, Geisinger and Atrium Health.
However, the in-home health business offered in partnership with providers had been slower to scale than anticipated, as health systems grappled with their own financial challenges and the future of the federal government’s hospital at home waiver seemed unclear, Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said on a call with investors in May.
The retailer logged $109 million in charges due to a restructuring at the health unit in its first quarter. Additionally, Best Buy reported a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $475 million in its fourth quarter ended Feb. 1, linked to a downward revision in the long-term financial projections for its health segment.
Best Buy and Current Health didn’t respond to requests for comment on the layoffs by publication.
