RadioShack to slow sale process; GameStop eyes stores
By Tom Hals
WILMINGTON, Del, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Bankrupt RadioShack Corp will slow the process of selling its surviving stores, while GameStop Corp has expressed interest in some of its 1,100 locations that are being closed this month, a lawyer for the electronics retailer told a judge on Wednesday.
The company is holding an auction later on Wednesday for the leases to the 1,100 stores.
RadioShack entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month with about 4,000 stores. It plans to sell about 2,000 to an affiliate of hedge fund Standard General, which plans to operate them with wireless company Sprint Corp.
RadioShack lawyer Greg Gordon said Standard General had since narrowed the number of stores it plans to bid on to a range of 1,700 to 2,050 from its original proposal for 1,500 to 2,400 as it continued to review the locations.
A third group of stores will be closed in March, and those leases will be auctioned as well.
Gordon also said the RadioShack name and other intellectual property would be auctioned separately and that Standard General would bid at least $20 million. He said Standard General's bid on the name would not be conditioned on the hedge fund's purchase of the stores.
To ease concerns of creditors who feared a rushed sale would discourage other potential bidders, RadioShack agreed to slow the process. If other bidders emerge by March 17, an auction will be held on March 23, according to Gordon.
As a result, the chain moved its date to ask the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, to approve the Standard General sale to March 26 from March 12, Gordon said.
The once-iconic retailer received bids for 205 of the stores it will abandon, including interest from an affiliate of GameStop.
RadioShack lawyer Tom Howley told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon that interest from Spring Communications, owned by GameStop, was "a significant development," but he did not say how many stores the video game chain was seeking.
GameStop has been pursuing an aggressive expansion strategy for its Spring Mobile business, which sells AT&T cellphones.
RadioShack's bankruptcy filing came after years of losses as online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc gobbled up the chain's market share.
The case is In re RadioShack Corp, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. 15-10197.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
