Circuit City Stores Inc.

9950 Mayland Dr.

Year founded: 1949

Industry: Retail

Post 200 Category: Top Companies Headquartered in Virginia

Revenue: $10.47 Billion

Net Income/Loss: $61.66 Million

Earnings per share: $0.31

Dividend: n/a

Stockholder equity: $2.09 Billion

Auditor: KPMG LLP

Stock: CC

Assets: $3.79 Billion

Market capitalization: $3.01 Billion

52-week high: 17.87 11/15/2004

52-week low: 10.32 5/12/2004

Chairman and CEO: W. Alan McCollough

President: Philip J. Schoonover

Employees: 42258

Local employees: n/a

Description: The big-box retailer has 617 stores in the United States. The company's subsidiary, InterTAN Inc., operates 1,000 Radio Shack and other electronics stores in Canada.

Developments: The company, which founder Samuel Wurtzel launched as a Wards Co. store, took one step onto the Internet and another north of the border in 2004 as it struggled to counter sales losses to Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart through store makeovers. The company shut down 19 stores while continuing plans to open new stores in better locations. Disappointing December sales capped a year that showed three straight quarters of losses. Circuit City continued to trail Best Buy in key financial categories, such as return on equity and cash-conversion cycle — how many days it takes a company to convert its expenditures back into cash. Some analysts called the company poorly managed. In March, the company bought MusicNow, a digital music store that, like Apple Computer Corp.'s popular iTunes, sells songs for 99 cents each for play on mp3 devices. The purchase price was not released. In May, the company completed its acquisition of InterTAN for $284 million, extending its presence into Canada. In March of this year, Circuit City rejected a $3.25 billion cash takeover bid from a Boston hedge fund, saying a sale "would not be in the best interest" of the company. The fund, Highfields Capital Management LP, said it wanted to take the electronics chain private so that it could be restructured without the pressure of meeting Wall Street's short-term expectations.