Tiger Direct To Buy Circuit City's Brand Name?

Credits:
Steve Smith
Twice.com

Systemax, the company that operates Tiger Direct’s online and brick-and-mortar stores — which last year cut a deal last year to acquire the brand, trademarks and e-commerce business of CompUSA, as well as 16 former CompUSA storefronts — is on the prowl again.

When Circuit City announced the intention to auction off its brand, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who said, "Why?"

Maybe people in the industry are too close to the situation, but many have to think that the Circuit City name would be far too damaged to make it a worthwhile investment for anyone. But Circuit’s going out of business sale was, by all accounts, successful, so who knows?

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For what it's worth, it appears that Tiger Direct's intention is aimed squarely at the most successful part of Circuit's bankrupt brand, the E-Commerce business. The obvious question that needs to be asked, though, is how much of the E-Commerce business's success was based on the connection to the brick and mortar stores themselves (either through the existing company branding or the in-store pickup leverage used by the website). Still, 6.5Million plus a share of the future business that transacts for the first 30 months of the deal is a pretty heft price to pay for any brand linked to such a stigma of failure.