Thread: Mexican owned"COMPUSA" To Close All Stores In U.S.

CompUSA to close all stores

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim will shutter the last 100 CompUSA stores and exit the U.S. consumer-electronics market after a round of holiday discounts to get rid of inventory.



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Mexican telephone and retail magnate Carlos Slim, in a rare defeat, will exit the U.S. consumer-electronics market, shutting the last 100 CompUSA stores after sinking about $2 billion into the business.

Stores will remain open through the end of the year under the supervision of Gordon Bros., a retail-store liquidator, which will also oversee a piecemeal sale of CompUSA, negotiating the sale of real estate and other assets. Two law firms were hired to represent creditors, CompUSA said.

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"An orderly and expedited wind-down and asset sale process is the best option for CompUSA and its creditors," Bill Weinstein, a principal at Gordon Bros., said in a statement. Weinstein was named interim president of the firm.

CompUSA has not been recently profitable, industry executives said. The company did an estimated $4 billion in annual sales last year, but with the closure of more than half of its stores in February, sales were expected to shrink to about $1.5 billion this year.

Slim, the powerful chairman of Telefonos de Mexico (TMX, news, msgs) and operator of a string of retail businesses in Latin America, has long coveted a big name in the U.S. retail market. He took his first stake in the business in 1999 and expanded the business through acquisition. After taking a minority stake in the retailer, he later spent $800 million to take the company private.

In 2003, CompUSA acquired California consumer-electronics chain The Good Guys. In 1998, he purchased Computer City from Tandy.

The retailer has struggled for years, hurt first by competition from direct personal-computer sellers such as Dell Inc. (DELL, news, msgs) and more recently by intense competition in consumer electronics. Bigger rivals such as Best Buy (BBY, news, msgs) and Wal-Mart Stores (WMT, news, msgs) have been able to offer greater selection and lower prices for flat-panel televisions and other consumer-electronics gear.





http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/In ... id=5861485


He should invest in Mexico and start sharing!

I refused to shop there ever since Slim bought them. Looks like I'm not the only one.

Good riddance!

ADIOS!

The stores sucked , bait & switch con

It's a pain when competition can undercut what you need to make an acceptable wage, I mean profit. Isn't it?