CompUSA Closing Shop for Good

by , 10:00 AM EST, December 8th, 2007

Former Apple retail partner CompUSA is finally throwing in the towel and closing its doors for good once the holiday season ends. The tech retailer was sold to the restructuring and investment firm Gordon Brothers Group who plans to liquidate the company assets, according to Reuters.

The 103 stores that survived the company's downsizing several months ago will continue to operate through the holiday buying season, but Gordon Brothers Group is already working on selling off its CompUSA.com online business, the CompUSA TechPro service business, and stores in certain key markets.

Bill Weistein, Gordon Brothers principal, is taking over as CompUSA interim president from Roman Ross while overseeing the shut down. "An orderly and expedited wind-down and asset sale process is the best option for CompUSA and its creditors at this juncture," he said.

CompUSA executives were hoping to avoid this scenario when they closed the doors on over half of their stores earlier this year. The move -- which ultimately proved to be unsuccessful -- was intended to streamline company expenses and boost profits.

Apple began pulling its "store in a store" centers from CompUSA locations when the retailer started scaling back in February. The Cupertino company launched a similar test program in Best Buy stores, and later expanded that into a full-on program.

Gordon Brothers hasn't stated how long it expects the shutdown and liquidation will take, but based on CompuUSA's current state, most customers won't notice when the doors finally do close for good.