Beleaguered big box and online electronics retailer Circuit City, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November, on Friday said it will liquidate its assets.
Circuit City closed its e-commerce channel, Friday evening, and replaced it with a questions and answers page regarding the merchant’s bankruptcy and liquidation process.
Acting president/CEO James Marcum said in a statement that Circuit City was unable reach an agreement with its creditors and lenders to structure a going-concern transaction in the timeframe allowed in its bankruptcy case. Marcum said the liquidation would put approximately 30,000 people out of work, he said.
Richmond, VA-based Circuit City announced on Nov. 3 that is would close 155 of its 566 stores, renegotiate existing leases and suspend planned store openings in 2010. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Nov. 10 and had hoped to restructure.
But questions to whether Circuit City was going to remain in business emerged last week. On Jan. 5, the company filed a motion with the Bankruptcy Court that would formally put the company up for sale either as separate business units or as individual assets–including the sale of inventory.
Though that signaled a potential sale of its inventory to a liquidation firm, the company said in a statement then that there were “two highly motivated and interested parties” that were considering providing financing to keep the company in business. But they never materialized.
Four companies–Great American Group; Hudson Capital Partners; SB Capital Group; and Tiger Capital Group–won the right to liquidate the company’s assets in a court-sanctioned auction held this week.