Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Circuit City brand back in business

When I received an email this morning from Circuit City promoting a new laptop deal, I scrutinized it for signs of phishing. When I then separately (without clicking on any links within the email) visited circuitcity.com, the web site appeared very much as it did prior to Circuit City's bankruptcy.

Apparently another company, Systemax, Inc., has bought the Circuit City brand, trademarks and assets and has re-opened circuitcity.com. It appears they will be offering products for sale only online and not in brick and mortar stores.

According to Bloomberg:
Systemax Inc. is a direct marketer of private label and brand name personal computers and related supplies, as well as industrial products, through branded websites and direct mail catalogs. The Company offers its own brand of Systemax built-to-order personal computers, including desktops and servers. Systemax operates in North America and in Europe.
I guess this is a bit of old news as ZDNet blogged about it on June 12. Apparently Systemax also runs TigerDirect.com and also acquired CompUSA. It will take some time before I'd feel comfortable ordering from the new circuitcity.com, mainly because I don't know much about Systemax and there are many more familiar alternatives, but I wish them luck.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

If you're considering doing business with them, don't count on receiving any rebates promised. Tiger Direct is famous for offering large rebates and then denying them, offering only the run around (at best) on later contacts. They got me that way once several years ago. I expect the same mentality is applied to their other brands.