Circuit City Stores Inc

Circuit City Stores Inc. hopes to sell its brand, trademarks and e-commerce business to Systemax Inc., the same company that purchased electronics retailer CompUSA's intellectual property when it closed in 2008.

Richmond-based Circuit City, also a shuttered electronics retailer, has entered a so-called stalking horse agreement with Systemax for $6.5 million, according to bankruptcy court filings. A stalking horse bid is an initial offer for a bankrupt company's assets from an interested buyer chosen by the company.

David Schneider
Last Sunday, April 4, Spring came to New York City. Sixty-two degrees it was, and calm in the bright sun of a cloudless sky. The city had been waiting.
The winter seemed unusually brutal and long. As late as March we got mugged by the winds Chicago-style – sucker-punched from the northeast, a roundhouse kick to the southwest quadrant, then a blow to the kidneys and thrown into traffic. The winter was long. But the city was waiting.

David SchneiderLast Sunday, April 4, Spring came to New York City. Sixty-two degrees it was, and calm in the bright sun of a cloudless sky. The city had been waiting.The winter seemed unusually brutal and long. As late as March we got mugged by the winds Chicago-style – sucker-punched from the northeast, a roundhouse kick to the southwest quadrant, then a blow to the kidneys and thrown into traffic. The winter was long. But the city was waiting.

While consumers may be cutting their discretionary spending, not all gadgets these days are discretionary -- and for many households, that now includes flat-screen TVs and laptop computers. That's one lesson from Best Buy's earnings report Mar. 26, which beat Wall Street's expectations and pushed the electronics retail chain's stock up 12.6 percent, to 37.67. Analysts said that might offer some hope that consumers are beginning to spend again.

If there were ever a time to hunt for bargains in tech, it's now. Prices for many must-have gadgets are low as lackluster demand forces manufacturers and retailers to slash prices. "Most categories continue to see [above seasonal] price declines," says Stephen Baker, vice-president of industry analysis at researcher NPD Group. The Consumer Electronics Assn. expects consumer electronics sales to slump 0.6 percent, to $171 billion this year. According to PriceGrabber.com, average selling prices on laptop computers, flat-panel TVs, navigation devices, and the like are on the decline.

Circuit City will finally flicker out when its last 567 stores close this year, but the bankruptcy of the nation's second-largest electronics retailer will ripple across the U.S. economy for years.

In its wake will be 18.71 million square feet of vacant space in a faltering real estate market. More than 40,000 workers will be jobless, including 7,000 laid off last year.

Shopping centers will lose rental income. Suppliers will lose display space. Newspapers already struggling with falling ad revenues will have one less glossy insert in their Sunday editions.

Big-box technology retailer Circuit City is asking for court approval to liquidate after two failed attempts at acquisition. The Richmond, Va.-based company said Friday that it plans to close its remaining 567 stores in the United States.

Which retailers will thrive in 2009 and which will have an uphill battle? A survey of customer satisfaction during the holiday season may shed light on those issues.

Amazon and Netflix delighted online shoppers, according to the annual Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index from ForeSee Results and FGI Research. Meanwhile, satisfaction with Web sites for Circuit City, Gap, Home Depot, HSN, Neiman Marcus, and Overstock fell below industry standards.

While the nation's top three automobile giants are trying to convince the government that they need a bailout, other businesses are doing what they can to stay afloat even if it means slashing thousands of positions.

Today, Sony joined the growing list of companies who have had to cut a percentage of their workforce to stay competitive. Sony announced Tuesday that it will slash 8,000 positions between now and March 2010 in its electronics business, cut operation costs, and cut inventory.

AT&T, one of the largest phone companies in the world, has fallen victim to economic turbulence. AT&T announced Thursday it will cut four percent of its workforce, or 12,000 jobs.

With 303,530 employees worldwide and $120 billion in pro-forma revenue in 2007, AT&T said the cuts are the result of a poor economy and an effort to reorganize and focus on specific businesses within the company, including wireless, broadband and video.