Best Buy, the world’s biggest consumer electronics retailer, cut 400 jobs at its headquarters as Chief Executive Officer Hubert Joly works to reduce costs.

The cuts and other actions will eliminate about $150 million in selling, general and administrative expenses, the Richfield, Minn.-based company said Tuesday. Best Buy, which wouldn’t disclose how many people work at its headquarters, employs about 8,000 in Minnesota, including in stores, and more than160,000 globally.

Joly, who took charge in September, is working on a plan announced last year to reduce costs by $750 million as the retailer competes with Amazon.com and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The job cuts come two days before Best Buy reports fiscal fourth-quarter results that will show whether Christmas discounts and a policy of matching competitors’ prices hurt profit.

“If you price-match and discount, you either cut expenses by an equal amount or end up producing lower returns,” Erik Gordon, a business and law professor at theUniversity of Michigan in Ann Arbor, said Monday.

Best Buy shares climbed 43 percent this year through Monday after sinking 49 percent in 2012. The shares closed Tuesday at $16.46.

The cost reductions also come two days before the deadline for founder and former Chairman Richard Schulze to make an offer for the retailer. Schulze proposed a buyout of $24 to $26 a share in August, about two months after resigning. He stepped down after an investigation found he had failed to inform directors about allegations that former Chief ExecutiveOfficer Brian Dunn was having an inappropriate relationship with a female employee.

Schulze has worked with three private-equity firms - Cerberus Capital Management, TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners - to arrange financing, people familiar with the matter have said. In December, the company extended the period for him to conduct due diligence through Thursday.

Best Buy shares sank as low as $11.20 in December and then recovered after Joly stabilized Christmas season sales with discounts and price-matching.

Business, Pages 24 on 02/27/2013