Circuit City: A Change at the Top Would Turn It Around Immediately

The TCW Group, formerly Circuit City's (CC) largest institutional investor, slashed its 10.9% stake (reported in August) in the soon to be bankrupt retailer to .2% according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday.

TCW cashed out losing approximately $128 million on its investment since last summer. No comment was issued regarding the sale, probably because they, like I, are left wondering not only how CEO Schoonover still has a job, but how he managed to get multi-million dollar retention bonuses to the management that has ruined the company past the board.

When you consider Best Buy (BBY) only scratched out a 1.5% sales gain this holiday season, which is low when you consider our thirst for electronic devices currently, one has to wonder how many days CC has left. Best Buy is clearly the class of the space and to call CC a "distant second" is really just giving it far too much credit.

I have blogged about CC a bit in the past and will continue to do so until Schoonover is gone. Why? Because they should be making money!! They have both the foot traffic and online site traffic to compete, yet they don't. They have the locations and the PR to make money, yet do not. The ONLY reason shareholders are suffering is due to Schoonover's incompetence.

With the stock at these levels, a change at the top would turn it around immediately... and until that happens... I'm here..

Disclosure: None.

Comments

[John P.:]

Did anyone see the email that has been circulating about his being ousted at the end of the month? That would be the best thing to ever happen to this company. I thought W. Allen McCullogh was bad, but Schoonover never ceases to amaze me when it comes to bad business. It's like he's taking cues right from George Bush's playbook.

Here's the email I speak of...

www.bloggingstocks.com.../

2008 Jan 14 12:43 PM

[Carson Allen:]

Does your disclosure ("none") mean you have a position that you aren't disclosing, or that your actually have no financial interest in CC?

Are you short CC? Please clarify.

2008 Jan 15 07:40 AM

[Todd Sullivan:]

carson, none means "no position"

2008 Jan 17 07:57 AM