Systemax
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Systemax relaunches Circuit City's website, this time with feeling
After shelling out some $6.5 million, you had to know that Systemax planned on doing something with Circuit City's trademarks and internet domain names. As of today, CircuitCity.com is back and better than ever, carrying on the legacy of a name that became synonymous with overpriced consumer electronics for nearly six decades. Of course, this doesn't mean that any Circuit City retail stores will be re-opening, but at least the brand is living on in the world wide web. The wonders of the internet: I Can Has Cheezburger?, Twitter and the continuation of an icon that would otherwise be six feet underground.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Systemax snaps up Circuit City's brand and domain name
Just like it did in January of last year, Systemax is snapping up leftovers from a now-defunct national consumer electronics retailer. As part of the post-bankruptcy proceedings, Circuit City Stores Incorporated recently closed a deal that'll net it $6.5 million. The price for the coinage? Systemax taking control of its trademarks and internet domain names. Circuit City stated in the filing that the sale of its intellectual property and internet assets would bring "significant recovery for the sellers' estates and creditors," and we're also told that Circuit City would be able to snag an unspecified share of sales from the brand name. Look out, Best Buy -- we hear Systemax has eyes for you, too.[Thanks, Sid]
CompUSA rises from dead, attacks Florida
CompUSA died a sputtering, inglorious death, but Ohio-based Systemax (which owns TigerDirect) didn't shell out $30M to pick up the pieces for nothing: it's just announced that it's re-opening 15 US stores and opening a new one, 13 of which are in Florida. We're not sure why the Sunshine State faces the brunt of CompUSA's angry zombie wrath -- do retirees enjoy being ripped off?* -- but Texans and Puerto Ricans can join in the fun with four stores of their very own. These are all apparently open now -- anyone brave enough to check out the scene? *Rejected asides: "Is this punishment for that Pitbull record?" "Guess you don't need braiiiiiins to pay these prices!" "Screw you, Mickey!"[Thanks, Steven]
Systemax salvages CompUSA brand, website, and up to 16 stores
We're not sure how many people will be relieved by this news, but the few die-hard CompUSA fans out there can rest easy tonight, as the big box retailer will continue to live on as a ward of Ohio-based Systemax. According to Reuters, the TigerDirect owner will shell out around $30 million for the CompUSA brand, trademarks, e-tail business, and as many as 16 brick-and-mortar retail locations, although the particular sites have not yet been chosen. The acquisition -- which comes just a month after the company was sold to liquidation firm Gordon Brothers Group -- was justified by Systemax CEO Richard Leeds as being a good match for its Tiger Direct operation because he believes "the value of the CompUSA brand remains very high."[Thanks, Quentin]
Systemax turns to VIA for new energy efficient PCs
VIA's already helped Everex pump out what they claim to be the "world's most energy efficient notebook," and it now looks to be trying to do the same for Systemax, with VIA's low-power processors finding a home in the company's latest desktop PC. While they aren't going so far as to claim that they're the "world's most energy efficient," they are promising a significant cut in your power bills, thanks largely to the VIA pc2500G motherboard at the heart of the system and the low-power 1.5GHz VIA C7-D processor attached to it. Otherwise, for $300 you'll get a barely adequate 512MB of RAM, an 80GB SATA hard drive, and a plain old DVD-ROM drive, with Windows XP Home serving as the OS. If that's not quite enough for you, an extra $100 will get you a combo optical drive and Windows XP Professional.
Systemax's Pursuit: sub-$1,000 Merom action
One of the best things about the new Core 2 Duo fad is that the majority of manufacturers who previously sold laptops with Core Duo chips have upgraded their models with little or no increase in price. The latest company to upgrade without upping prices is Systemax, which is about to endow its low-cost Pursuit laptops with Core 2 Duo processors and a new slim design. The new configuration features the same 15.4-inch widescreen LCD, 1GB of RAM, 80GB Hard Drive, 1.3 megapixel webcam, and DVD burner as its predecessor, but adds a 1.66GHz Merom processor to give an estimated 20% performance increase over the 1.6GHz Core Duo model. Retaining the price of the old model, the newly-speced Pursuit will be priced at $999.99, although we're not too optimistic that the old model's $200 mail-in rebate will stick around.
