CompUSA To Close All Stores

Consumer Electronics Retailer Is Sold; Will Shutter After Holiday Sales

(AP)  Consumer electronics retailer CompUSA said Friday it will close its store operations after the holidays following sale of the company to Gordon Brothers Group LLC, a restructuring firm. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

CompUSA operates 103 stores, which plan to run store-closing sales during the holidays.

Privately held CompUSA, controlled by Mexican financier Carlos Slim Helu's Grupo Carso SA, said discussions were under way to sell certain stores in key markets. Stores that can't be sold will be closed.

Gordon Brothers will also try to sell the company's technical services business, CompUSA TechPro, and online business, CompUSA.com. It would be up to the buyers whether to continue the CompUSA name.

Dallas-based CompUSA has struggled for nearly a decade with falling prices on personal computers, its most important product, and competition from big-box retailers such as Best Buy.

The slowing growth in computer sales has affected other companies. Dell Inc.'s U.S. consumer sales fell 26 percent in the first half of this year, which could have accelerated the PC maker's announcement this week that it will sell machines at Best Buy.

CompUSA was founded in 1984 as software seller Soft Warehouse, then branched out into computers. It took on the CompUSA name and went public in 1991. It bought Tandy's Computer City chain.

Slim bought his first stake in the company in 1999 and took it private the next year in an $800 million buyout. The chain went through several CEOs and tried different turnaround strategies, such as a move this year to focus on core customers such as gadget lovers and small-business owners.

CompUSA closed more than half its stores this spring and got a cash infusion of $440 million to restructure.

During the wind-down, Weinstein and Stephen Gray, managing partner at CRG Partners, will run the company. The chain's current chief executive, Roman Ross, will serve in an advisory role, CompUSA said.

Gordon Brothers created an affiliate, Specialty Equity LLC, to handle the deal. DJM Realty, a Gordon Brothers Group affiliate, will review leases of CompUSA's store locations.

[jetranger7]

Theres a Store in Independence Missouri, that Closed a Year ago, its a big store in a new area too, its been sitting empty for a year now, weeds growing up all around it, trash in the parking lot, windows all boarded up, and it sits right nest to a Lowes too, and 5 restraunts, and a major gas station,, these guys borrow all this money on advice from Half-azzed Braindead Investors, who sell them on the idea, that more is better, the more stores, the more revenue, supposedly, so they do this, with that mind set, and pretty soon, they''re going bankrupt, can''t afford to pay their employees a decent wage with benefits, and soon everybody loses their jobs and the bankers get stuck with badd loans that are passed on to us the consumers, this kind of over blown egotistical behavior has got to stop !! Its also a BLIGHT to Neighborhoods, and the surrounding cities to see these stores sitting empty boarded up, because of some greedy fool with BS Ideas and half baked dreams, who want to live beyond their abilities and means !!!

[jetranger7]

Also, a big RV Dealer has just closed their doors too, weren''t selling enough RVs, to stay in business, and the truck topper place down the road just closed its doors too, and up on I-29 going into OMAHA area, a big new FORD dealership, just built within the last 2 years is all closed down,,not a car or truck on the lot !! EMPTY !!

[jetranger7]

ALSO- DIDN''T I read on here one morning a few weeks ago that some IDIOT is going to build a water park down in Phoenix, that will require a massive amount of water ???? Theres another half-Brained idea, that''ll go Bankrupt and cost everybody too, these Schemers just keep BShittin everybody, whens people going to wake up, and realize these are the very guys that are breaking down the system on these overglorified stupid Pipedreams, be different if they were building a Factory that was going to actually produce something in the name of good for america and employee people at a decent wage with benefits, but most of these morans only offer parttime low wage jobs, and accomplish nothing, but badd debts and leave a badd taste in the communities they leave in blight, reminds me of that pharmor scam from the late 80s era, !!!!

[cnjcc]

Hmmm ... of all the reasons given why they are going out of business, I don''t see any mention of the undertrained staff, their non-competitive pricing ($85 just to examine your computer to find out what, if anything is wrong with it), their attempted swindles of computer parts manufacturers (intentionally zapping motherboards with an electric charge in order to get a free (to them) warranty replacement ... I could see this coming for some time.

[olebd]

It seems to me this may be a new tactic of the elite minority, who have most of the money in the world, investing it like JetRanger said below. Then they quickly abandon their ideas and turn their supposed "loss" into a business/tax write off. We had a similar scenario occur with a Rainforest Cafe nearby. Despite being crowded from open to close, they pulled out of a local mall seemingly overnight.

[jetranger7]

Hey you guys reading on this web site - You gotta go check this out- related to this very thing almost. You wanna see see major Greed - go to: WWW.WARONGREED.ORG -- watch the Video !! /// WWW.WARONGREED.ORG

[hypnotoad72]

CompUSA did overcharge and some of the technical help wasn''t... But with Geek Squad having been in the news before about using pirating diagnostic software and stealing customers'' data and music, I''m surprised they''re still allowed to operate. No small businessman would have the guts to show himself. Though I used to know some who would anyway...

Web-search them; there are plenty of articles showcasing GS''s previous activities. (Roughly 18 months old, I still wouldn''t trust them.)