“The owner of electronics retailer CompUSA has reportedly asked financial advisers to search for buyers for the chain,” The Associated Press reports.
“The Dallas Morning News, citing unnamed sources familiar with the offer, reported Wednesday that Grupo Carso SA of Mexico asked Credit Suisse to quietly approach investors who might be interested in the 230-store chain,” AP report.
“A CompUSA spokesman declined to comment to The Associated Press. A spokeswoman for Credit Suisse declined to comment,” AP reports.
Full article here.
Wow.
Didn’t know that a mexican group owned CompUSA. I have noticed that they have shut down a few locations. I wonder who may be a fit for these guys?
They should have made the Apple corner bigger.
they should put this up on eBay…
Can we say “Apple Store EXTREME”?
They suck <throws chair>
Good one B-Sabre. Just throw out all of the Windows sh*t and turn all 230 of them into Apple Store Extreme SuperCenters…
omg, I hate CompUSA…
I went there once…
I need one ethernet cable and found 3:
They were in 3 colors, identical length, brand, model, except for color:
gray= $7.95
blue = $12.95
green = +16.95
and price…
…I’m the proud owner of a 10ft GRAY ethernet cable, needless to say. 😀
(actual prices and colors dimly recollected)
The main question is whether they own their own real estate. That probably has more value than the stores, the inventory, or the brand.
One can only hope that someone with brains and a clue buys the chain (it is currently one of the worst shopping experiences on the planet).
It’s utterly amazing compUSA has not gone out of business, they are so bad.
I really hate them (rude, uppity pricks).
I hope they go broke and hurt the owners in the process.
I sure hope that they don’t get turned into Best Buy boxes – yuck!
CompUSA used to be a good store. They used to have the good stuff that you couldn’t find in the big box chain stores. They also used to have the best Apple/Mac hardware/software/peripheral selection in the (Seattle/Tacoma) area besides the Apple Stores.
I think that their downfall was trying to compete with Best Buy, Circuit City, etc., and carry the same cheap, run-of-the-mill crap.
They are pulling out of Memphis. A current Out of Business Sale is going on.
They have always been their own worst enemy. Come prime shopping hours, nobody was in the Apple area. The computers were always messed up, out of date and not connected to the net. The average person wanting to find out about them would have to get regular floor staff and get barraged with a bunch of Anti-Mac FUD or come back when our Mac guy is here.
Not a good way to do business…
Poo: “I hope they go broke and hurt the owners in the process.”
CompUSA was the only company that supported Apple at it’s difficult times, how is it possible that now you say that, what a short memory you have.
CompUSA is going down the drain. The service there is atrocious. Last time I was there, I was trying to buy a flash drive, which were all locked up behind a glass case. I spent 20 minutes trying to find someone who could open the case, and the only guy who could was talking shop with a customer who wasn’t even interested in buying anything, from what I coudl hear as I was patiently trying to get his attention.
I got sick of this so I just went to the Best Buy and found a better deal on the same model of flash drive.
And how’s this for perspective? Apple has more 150 stores worldwide and is opening 40 per year. Apple Stores have been in operation for only 5 or so years?
CompUSA has been around for like a decade or two, and has only 230 stores.
Shows you exactly what Apple being the “fastest growing retailer” really means.
You know, I heard at one time, I they sold computers there!
Yeah, go out of business and hurt the owners-and the employees who no longer have jobs, their families who relied on the paycheck and communities who received tax money from them.
Yeah, that’ll teach the owners!
They should sell it to Vons or Jacobsons, at least the cashiers there know where the vegetables are.
o- reeeeaaaally……………
“Newly Designed Apple Store”
maybe the new designs are because all of a suddon they have 20 times the cubic footage and probably dont want it to appear like a wharehouse… I am seeing lots of tables with wifi in the air…. one large coffee please..
CompUSA most likely has long-term leases on all these stores. A new owner may not want all the stores so they will be left paying out the balance of the leases or trying to get a subtenent. I wonder if Apple is looking over the CompUSA locations and wondering if they could get a deal on some of these spaces?
Of all the Windoze centric retailers I’ve been to, CompUSA is (or was) by far the crappiest. They take “customer service” to new lows.
Glad to see them go. CompUSA, don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out!
I have always been well treated at CompUSA, particularly by their knowledgeable staff. I bought my first mac there (1.8 dual, PowerMac), was given a gig of extra ram for free, and received 18 months of interest free financing.
Try that at the Apple Store.
If they go out, I will miss them.
The CompUSA repair desk always treated me rudely when I went in there. My experiences with CompUSA have always been poor.
As an employee of CompUSA I can say I agree that for the most part the service is horrible and most of the staff is poorly trained. However, there are always a few good emplyoees that do care about service. Unfortunatly the company doesn’t care about thier employees so the few good ones get sick of the management and leave.
As for selling the company, it can’t hurt. We’ve gone through 3 CEO in the last 4 months, it appears as though no one wants to be in chagre of the disaster. I don’t blame carlos for wanting to sell…
I have to say that for computer stuff I preferred CompUSA than Best Buy…but YMMV.
Expanding on my “AppleStore Extreme” idea…Let’s say that Apple pairs up with some of the other big names in home entertainment that are NOT directly competing with them for control of the entertainment sector and uses the stores to showcase a truly “integrated” entertainment network. How long would it take for the emergence of “Bonjour” enabled components if Apple started shopping around?
By necessity this would aim mostly to the high-end and mid-high end consumer, but it would be a customer who is looking for a solution, not just hooking up boxes at random.
Magic Word: “Never” as in “It’ll never happen.”