Circuit City Stores Inc. (Richmond, Va.) has reiterated that it will not close more of the 154 stores it announced would be closed when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November.
The retailer made the announcement after financial services firm Credit Suisse issued a report saying, "Circuit City's move to close an additional 150 stores will likely make it that much harder to survive, in our view," saying the additional closings would benefit Best Buy Co. Inc. (Richfield, Minn.), the consumer electronics leader that is also struggling in the current economy.
Credit Suisse later corrected its research note. "In our Best Buy note published earlier this morning, we erroneously stated that Circuit City received permission from a federal bankruptcy court to close an incremental 150 stores and break the leases associated with the stores."
Circuit City said it filed court notice earlier this week that it was seeking to reject leases on 154 of the 155 stores it is closing. The company canceled an auction of these leases that had been set for Thursday after it did not receive enough bids.