HMV Canada Sold for Only $3.2M

The country's biggest record store chain has been sold for about as much as a second-line hockey player makes in year.

HMV's Canadian division, the largest chain of record stores in the country, has been sold for a modest sum of about $3.2 million, as the British company undergoes a debt refinancing. The deal puts 121 stores across Canada under the control of Hilco UK, and represents the massive, but not altogether surprising, collapse of the record industry's value over the past decade. The deal makes each store, merchandise included, valued at around $26,000 apiece. Whether Hilco, a debt restructuring company, will keep all the stores open remains to be seen. HMV has focused on selling DVDs in recent years as CD sales have plummeted, and the British company's continued restructuring aims to turn the 90-year-old retailer into a “broad-based entertainment business,” whatever that means.