Bloomberg is the latest to report on the woes affecting RadioShack-- apparently the retailer is set to shut down in a bankruptcy deal selling around half its store leases to Sprint and closing the rest.
The anonymous sources add the sold outlets will operate under the Sprint name, meaning the 94-year old RadioShack will cease to exist as a stand-alone retailer. However negotiations are still ongoing, meaning talks can either break down or lead to a co-branding agreement, possibly as part of a store-within-a-store concept involving the wireless carrier.
Another possibility is that of another bidder entering the fray-- such as the Sanpower Group, the Chinese backers who took the Brookstone chain out of bankruptcy back in June 2014.
Of course, this Bloomberg report is but the latest of a slew on RadioShack's imminent bankruptcy. Last month the Wall Street Journal said RadioShack will prepare for bankruptcy protection from early February 2015, should it fail to find lenders or debt-restructuring options.
RadioShack counts over 4000 stores in the US. It was founded as a mail-order radio equipment retailer (thus the name) in 1921, and over the decades expanded into CE, PCs and components. However recent times have hit the anachronistically-named retailer hard, with bigger-than expected fiscal Q3 losses.
RadioShack is still to comment on the news stories.
Go RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest (Bloomberg)