CompUSA

CompUSA, Inc. es una compañía vendedora de electrónicos, productos de tecnología y servicios de computadora. Actualmente la compañía opera 103 tiendas en diferentes mercados en Estados Unidos y Puerto Rico.

CompUSA, Inc. es propiedad de U.S. Comercial Corp S.A. de C.V., que es indirectamente controlada por el empresario mexicano Carlos Slim Helú. U.S. Comercial cotiza en la Bolsa de Valores Mexicana como USCOMBI. El sitio web ofrece más de 19.000 productos.

Historia

• 1984 - Fundada como una almacén de Softawate en Addison, Texas, comercializando productos directamente a los empresarios.
• 1985 - Abrió su primer tienda.
• 1988 - Abrió su primera tienda en el sur de California.
• 1988 - Abrió el primer supermercado de computadores.
• 1991 - Cambió de nombre a CompUSA.
• 1993 - Empezó a ofrecer servicio técnico a sus clientes.
• 1996 - Lanzó las ventas por medio de la página CompUSA.com.
• 2000 - Became privately-held company under Mexican retail company, Grupo Sanborns.
• 2003 - Acquired Good Guys.^[1]
• 2005 - Converted three CompUSA stores and 13 Good Guys stores into "megastores." Closed all 46 Good Guys locations. Began marketing in California and Hawaii as "CompUSA with Good Guys Inside" (in response to Best Buy's marketing campaign "with Magnolia Inside").
• 2006 - Announced the closing of 15 stores across the United States including several locations in California; these stores were being used to liquidate discontinued items from other stores across the nation until the end of October. Roman Ross, a former Philip Morris executive, replaced Tony Weiss as president and CEO after only four months in office. In November 2006, CompUSA launched their new "Home Entertainment" Rollout in 40 of its stores (including Puerto Rico), that sold a variety of High Definition Televisions and Home Theater equipment. Roman Ross claimed that Home Entertainment was one of his chief focuses as the new CEO.^[2] Press reported that CompUSA's Mexican parent Grupo Carso was interested in putting CompUSA up for sale.^[3]
• 2007 - Announced the closing and liquidation of 126 stores due to "..need to close and sell stores with low performance or non strategic, old store layouts and locations faced with market saturation" Roman Ross CEO.^[4] The realignment included a $440,000,000 cash infusion, store closures, major expense reductions and a corporate restructuring.
• 2007, May 14 - CompUSA ends the liquidation sale and finalizes the 126 store closures.
• 2007, May 27 - Annual General Manager Meeting brings talks of 56 store closings to the table, the corporate officers present refuted the claim.
• 2007, August through December - Gabriela Villalobos, EVP, makes her stops through all of the 103 operational stores to evaluate the functionality of each since the store closures.
• 2007, December 7 - CompUSA acquired by Gordon Brothers, as discussions led to the agreement on store sales and closeouts for the remaining 103 stores.

Referencias

1. ↑ "CompUSA To Buy Good Guys", About.com, September 29, 2003
2. ↑ "CompUSA Names New CEO", Yahoo! Finance, September 1, 2006
3. ↑ "CompUSA seeking buyer, paper says", CNN Money, September 13, 2006
4. ↑ "CompUSA Announces Realignment Strategy", Press Release Feb, 2007