RadioShack fades, struggles for financing

[caption id="attachment_98610" align="aligncenter" width="500"] RadioShack seeks new financing to avert bankruptcy.[/caption]

RadioShack (NYSE: RSH), which has 15 stores in the North Bay, on Thursday described efforts to obtain financing needed to keep the giant chain out of bankruptcy.

The technology retailer reported only $30.5 million in cash available as of the beginning of August plus more than $150 million in a line of credit.

RadioShack has three stores in Santa Rosa, two in San Rafael, and stores in Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Sebastopol, Windsor, Sonoma, Cloverdale, San Rafael, Novato, Corte Madera, Napa, Vallejo and Cloverdale. The chain, based in Fort Worth, Texas, has 4,485 stores.  

In 2008, RadioShack had revenue of almost $5 billion. The company struggled in recent years as online competitors squeezed it on price, and other technology retailers such as Best Buy pressured RadioShack’s retail outlets for sales of mobile phones and accessories. For 2013, RadioShack reported losses of about $400 million, up from 2012 losses of nearly $140 million, and it closed about 1,000 stores. Last year, RadioShack Radio sold wireless service from AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and Boost Mobile, as well as cell phones.

The stock skidded from nearly $77 a share in 1999 to as low as 58 cents on Aug. 15, and just over $1 today.

RadioShack, started in 1921 to serve the amateur radio market, was near bankruptcy in the early 1960s and in 1963 was acquired for a reported $300,000 by Tandy Corporation, which sold leather goods and crafts. In the 1970s, Tandy sold its TRS personal computers, competing with early Apple Computers, then marketed a line of notebook computers. Tandy had a chain of larger computer stores called Computer City, later sold to CompUSA. The company dropped the Tandy name in 2000 in favor of RadioShack.

In the current marketplace, the name RadioShack has obvious challenges. Radio has been eclipsed by television, wireless Internet and mobile phones. "Shack" in the name almost suggests a rickety enterprise, and possible collapse.

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