Tower inventory going to auction
Liquidators Great American to sell more than $500,000 in merchandise
By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 3/1/2007
MARCH 1 | Great American Group, the liquidation company that acquired Tower Records last year, is holding a public auction to sell more than $500,000 worth of the chain’s remaining merchandise.
The auction will be presented as a live Webcast on March 20 at 11 a.m. as well as an on-site event at Tower’s Sacramento, Calif., headquarters. Interested buyers can first inspect the offerings at Tower’s offices on March 19. Auction details and participation rules can be found at Great American’s Web site.
Featured items include furniture, office equipment and product inventory as it relates to both Tower and its Web site, Tower.com. Although “going out of business” sales for Tower’s bricks-and-mortar outlets were wrapped up by Great American last year, the chain has continued to operate its Web site.
The site is expected to stay fully operational at least through the end of March, according to Great American auction coordinator Luis Guerrero.
Currently, Tower.com is offering a number of March deals, including $9.99-priced CDs and free shipping on orders totaling $20 or more.
San Francisco-based music company Norton purchased Tower’s Web assets during the original auction for the bankrupt retailer last year. But Norton has avoided closing the deal, arguing that Tower has not disclosed key information about its Web properties.
Largely due to the delay, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware has encouraged this March auction of both remaining bricks-and-mortar and Web assets.
“Since the October auction, due to the inability to close the transaction with Norton, the debtors have continued their marketing efforts with respect to the Web site business and other intellectual property assets not sold at the October auction,” states a court filing dated Feb. 21. “These continued efforts over the past five months have resulted in increased interest in the IP assets and the debtors are currently negotiating with numerous parties that have indicated an interest in participating in the auction.”
Great American’s Guerrero said the March 20 auction is not putting up for bidding the Tower.com domain name. It’s unclear how that portion of the company is being handled.
