Californian e-tailer Egghead.com is to sell up after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The dotcom, which flogged IT-related products, issued a statement yesterday saying it would sell its Web site and other assets to the US retail chain Fry's Electronics.
It has laid off 185 employees as a result of the move. This leaves it with 130 staff, compared to the workforce of 500 it supported five months ago.
Egghead is to continue trading under bankruptcy court supervision until the sale - which is expected by the end of next month. San Jose-based Fry's is then expected to operate the Egghead.com site.
Egghead CEO Jeff Sheahan said the move was the result of a "dramatic and unexpected" drop in sales in recent weeks, which made it impossible for the company to drag itself into the black in its fourth quarter.
Once upon a time, Egghead was America's biggest IT retailer. In 1998, after falling flat on its face with this business, it announced its intention to set up as a pure play Internet retailer.
This is what we wrote at the time: "Egghead.com Inc. - as it is now wants to be called - is a company that has lost its way. Instead of wasting shareholder funds in a desperate attempt to reinvent the firm, Egghead’s managers should saddle up and move on." ®
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