A pair of suitors- part-owner Ricardo Salinas and equity firm Golden Gate Capital- were negotiating to purchase Circuit City and keep it going right until the end, but neither was able to put a deal together before a deadline expired and the company was liquidated earlier this month.
That's according to a lengthy blow-by-blow of the retail chain's final months published this week in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The paper reported that the two suitors met with Circuit City's committee of creditors a total of a dozen times during International CES in Las Vegas, before negotiations continued in New York the following week. However, the numbers didn't work, the potential buyers dropped out, and liquidation was the final option.
Other highlights from the newspaper's piece:
- In the New York meetings, the Salinas and Golden Gate groups, as well as two creditors, were situated on four separate floors of the same hotel, as executives shuttled among them.
- Among scenarios bandied about were reduction to a 350-store chain, as well as all the way down to 180 stores.
- A scheduled auction of the company's assets was delayed multiple times, and by the time it was held the liquidators were the only remaining bidders.
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