By Jim Christie
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The auction for bankrupt electronic retailer RadioShack's name and customer data will resume on Tuesday with bidding at $15 million, according to a lawyer tracking the sale.
The high bidder is an affiliate of the Standard General hedge fund, which acquired 1,740 RadioShack stores in April, according to Adrienne Walker of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo.
The auction for the assets is taking place at the New York offices of the Jones Day law firm.
Walker represents a group of RadioShack's U.S. independent dealers and franchisees. They have objected to the sale over concerns about whether they could continue to use the RadioShack trademark and whether a buyer of the company's customer data will be subject to their privacy policies.
The sale of RadioShack's customer data has also raised concerns about privacy, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office has objected to the sale of personally identifiable information.
Apple Inc joined that effort last week with a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, that said its reseller agreement with RadioShack protects information collected by the retailer during sales of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) products.
The sale of the RadioShack name and customer data must be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon.
RadioShack, forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February by competition from online and bricks-and-mortar rivals, won court approval in March to sell part of its business to General Wireless, an affiliate of the Standard General hedge fund. Most of RadioShack's surviving stores will be co-branded with cellular phone provider Sprint Corp (N:S).
The case is In Re: RadioShack Corp, Case No. 15-10197, in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware.