Circuit City Management is Finally in a Hurry

Source Article: Circuit City Ask Court for Auction Read Article:


Implications:
1) Circuit City(NYS:CC) is pushing Court to move very quickly

2) Threatening they be forced to "Liquidate" if auction isn't approved.

3) Is this about recovering shareholder value or a "Fire Sale" so it's over for current management team?

Analysis:
Circuit City(NYS:CC) is back in court, asking for approval to hold a "Two Party" auction within a very short time frame, in order to survive as as an ongoing concern, or something resembling an ongoing concern.

Well, it seems as though the Management team at Circuit City(NYS:CC) is finally in a hurry. They weren't in a hurry when they lost the "leading national consumer electronics retailer" title to Best Buy(NYSE:BBY), they weren't in a hurry to adjust their clearly noncompetitive retail offering after the last store update made them into a poor imitation of a Best Buy(NYSE:BBY), and they weren't in a hurry as the firm's financial results spiraled downhill.

I'd be very wary about them being in a hurry to dispose of the firm now, if I were one of the bidders or the court.

With the news this morning that Bank of America(NYSE:BAC)(NYSE:BAC) is going back to the TARP for MORE money to absorb the Merrill Lynch(NYSE:MER)(NYSE:MER) acquisition, it seems a wise course of action with all these "troubled" firms that everyone should step back, take a breath, and engage in real research and investigation of what is actually being bought and sold in these rapidly constructed purchases.

You would think a bank should be able to read the balance sheet and critically examine what the assets they are purchasing are worth. In a retailing firm, there are many more "Gray areas" to look over. The Court's obligation is to the shareholders, so we'll see what they decide.