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CompUSA sold; some stores to close after holidays
Consumer electronics retailer CompUSA said Friday that it will close its store operations after the holidays after the sale of the company to Gordon Brothers Group, a restructuring firm. Financial terms weren?t disclosed.
CompUSA operates 103 stores, which plan to run store-closing sales during the holidays.
Privately held CompUSA, controlled by Mexican financier Carlos Slim Helu's Grupo Carso, said discussions were underway to sell certain stores in key markets. Stores that can't be sold will be closed.
Gordon Brothers will also try to sell the company's technical services business, CompUSA TechPro, and online business, CompUSA.com. It would be up to the buyers whether to continue the CompUSA name.
Dallas-based CompUSA has struggled for nearly a decade with falling prices on personal computers, its most important product, and competition from big-box retailers such as Best Buy.
Peter W Dahl Company, Manufacturers of Custom Transformers, Going Out of Business
The Peter W. Dahl Company in El Paso, Texas, will be closing its doors as of December 31, 2007, according to Peter
Dahl, K0BIT, owner and founder of the company that has made custom transformers for more than 40 years. Dahl, 67,
is suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. The company manufactured a wide variety of transformers and reactors for
Amateur Radio and commercial radio and television applications. According to Dahl, many are direct replacements
for original equipment components that are no longer available from the manufacturer, while others have
general-purpose applications in any number of different transmitters. He said that they had more than 4000
individual transformer designs on file. QST columnist John Dilks, K2TQN (”Old Radio”), said the closing of
the Dahl Company was “sad news for those of us who restore the big iron.” Dahl told the ARRL, “I want to
thank everyone for their business throughout the years. I have enjoyed making each Amateur Radio
transformer.” — Thanks to John Dilks, K2TQN [ARRL Web Extra]
Dell will start selling PCs at Best Buy
Dell is venturing further from its direct-to-consumer sales model and will start selling computers at Best Buy stores in January.
The companies said Thursday that Best Buy will sell Dell’s XPS and Inspiron notebook and desktop computers at more than 900 stores.
Dell built its business around selling personal computers directly to customers, but it has been cutting deals with retailers as growth of PC sales slowed. The Round Rock, Texas-based company lost its spot as the world’s No. 1 computer maker to Hewlett-Packard late last year, and HP has stretched its lead since then.
Dell officials believe Best Buy gives the PC maker a presence at different levels of the U.S. retail market. The company already sells modestly priced PCs in about 3,000 Wal-Mart stores and targets small-business owners through a retail partnership with Staples Inc.
Nitrogen Used To Fill Aircraft Oxygen Systems
Airlines all over the world are being warned to check to make sure there’s actually oxygen in their aircraft oxygen systems after an embarrassing mix-up by Qantas Airlines at Melbourne International Airport. For ten months, crews have been filling airliner oxygen systems from a nitrogen cart that’s supposed to be used to fill tires. The mistake went unnoticed until a couple of weeks ago when an observant aircraft engineer spotted service workers using the cart. “He was walking around the plane and asked what they were doing. When they said they were topping up the oxygen, he said, ‘No you’re not, that’s a nitrogen cart,’”
an unnamed source told The Age. As anyone who works with industrial gases knows, oxygen tanks have different fittings than other gases to prevent exactly this kind of mix-up. However, when the crews discovered the fittings on what they thought was their new oxygen cart didn’t fit, they swapped them for the ones on the old cart they were retiring. Of course, Australian officials are looking into the error and Qantas has been busy notifying other airlines that use its services in Melbourne. Hundreds of aircraft may be affected.
| January, 2008 | |
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