Photo: wenn.com

Entertainment retailer HMV is to buy 14 stores from its stricken high street rival, Zavvi.

The buyout, which will be funded by selling new shares, will form part of the company's wider move into the live music market.

The Zavvi stores bought by HMV include two branches in Glasgow and one in Southend. A total of 269 jobs will be saved.

Zavvi, formerly Virgin Megastore, fell into administration on December 24th. The company has suffered since the collapse of Woolworths.

HMV is to use profits from its new stores to take a joint stake in eleven music venues across the country, including the Hammersmith Apollo in London.

The venue, which is one of the capital's premiere music halls, will be renamed the HMV Apollo.

Zavvi's administrators Ernst & Young have already been forced to close more than thirty of the company''s 114 stores in the UK.

Zavvi relied on Woolworths' distribution branch Entertainment UK (EUK) to deliver its CDs, DVDs and video games.

The company stopped deliveries and online trading last November after the long-established high street store collapsed.