page_title: Circuit City
section_title: Bankruptcy and liquidation
hierarchical_section_title: Circuit City / History / 2000s / Bankruptcy and liquidation
caption_attribution_description: English: Liquidation signs at the Circuit City at 4601 Creedmoor Road in Raleigh, North Carolina, as the chain is going out of business.
context_page_description: Circuit City Corporation is an American consumer electronics retail company, established by Ronny Shmoel in 2016 as part of his acquisition of the brand name and trademark rights sold by Systemax, which formerly operated the CircuitCity.com website from 2009 until 2012, when it was consolidated into the TigerDirect brand.
  Founded in 1949 by Samuel Wurtzel as the Wards Company, the original company operated stores across the United States and pioneered the electronics superstore format in the 1970s. After multiple purchases and a successful run on the NYSE, it changed its name to Circuit City Stores Inc.
context_section_description: On November 4, 2008, Circuit City announced that it would close 155 stores and lay off 17% of its workforce by the end of the year as a result of continuing difficulties in remaining profitable. On November 7, 2008, Circuit City laid off between 500 and 800 corporate employees from its Richmond, Virginia headquarters. The approximately 1,000 remaining corporate employees were consolidated into one building in an effort to further reduce costs and improve profitability. On November 10, 2008, Circuit City filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. At that time, Circuit City's stock traded well below $1 per share, and was removed from listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
  In bankruptcy court, Circuit City was approved to borrow $1.1 billion to finance operations while restructuring. Court filings revealed that the company had assets of $3.4 billion and debt of $2.32 billion, including a $119 million debt to Hewlett-Packard and a $116 million debt to Samsung Electronics. Chief executive James A. Marcum promised that the stores would stay open and the chain would not be liquidated.
  On November 18, 2008, it was announced that Ricardo Salinas Pliego, current owner of Mexican television broadcaster TV Azteca and electronics store chain Elektra, had purchased 28 percent of Circuit City.
  On January 10, 2009, it was announced by a company spokesman that Circuit City needed a buyer by January 16, 2009 to keep from shutting its doors due to an approaching deadline set by the court and creditors. Although two unnamed parties were interested in buying out Circuit City, a bidder could not be found, so Circuit City, with bankruptcy court approval, converted its Chapter 11 bankruptcy to Chapter 7, and started airing "going out of business" commercials, as they started closing all of their stores. The Canadian operations, which were run under The Source by Circuit City banner, were not initially affected by the liquidation, but were later sold to Bell Canada.
  According to Circuit City's website, the company announced on January 16, 2009 that it intended to liquidate all of its stores. Reportedly, over 30,000 employees lost their jobs in the liquidation, as well as 45% of Verizon's Circuit City sales force being laid off with the remainder resigning or transferring to other Verizon locations.
  The final day of operations for all Circuit City stores was March 8, 2009. Besides retail auto dealerships, Circuit City closed more retail locations in the U.S. than any other retail chain in 2009. Circuit City selected Great American Group LLC, Hudson Capital Partners LLC, SB Capital Group LLC, and Tiger Capital Group LLC to handle the liquidation of all stores nationwide. Liquidation was completed on March 9, 2009.
  During the liquidation of all Circuit City stores across the nation, the company's online store was closed, and replaced it with a page that read as follows:
  Circuit City would like to thank all of the customers who have shopped with us over the past 60 years. Unfortunately, we announced on January 16, 2009, that we are going out of business.
  — Circuit City Stores, Inc., via its webpage
caption: Liquidation sale at Circuit City in Raleigh, North Carolina, in February 2009
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.4.6", "Image DateTime": "2009:02:26 19:34:07", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "216", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5918", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6634", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/40", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1600", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:02:26 16:06:53", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:02:26 16:06:53", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "174389/32768", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-2/3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "43", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3292", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "5794", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "3888000/877", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "432000/97", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}