By Mark Hanrahan -
Struggling electronics retailer RadioShack is preparing to file for bankruptcy as early as next month, sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal. The company is in talks with potential lenders who could fund its operations during the process, the paper added.
In addition, the company is in talks with a private-equity firm, who could buy its assets out of bankruptcy, the Journal reported.
The move comes just days after Salus Capital Partners offered the company $500 million in funding, a kind of debtor-in-possession loan often used by companies to fund their operations while in bankruptcy, the Journal previously reported.
An analysis by Seeking Alpha suggested that the move from Salus was an attempt to “again access to a company's assets through bankruptcy, and should not be mistaken as a turnaround effort.”
The retailer, which has almost 4,000 stores across the U.S., had warned in Sep. 2014 that a bankruptcy filing was a possibility. Its shares have lost almost 60 percent of their market value since the bankruptcy warning through Tuesday's close, Reuters reported. The company has posted losses in the last 11 quarters.
Plans by the company to close 1,100 underperforming stores, which it announced in March last year, were stymied after lenders blocked the planned closures.
The costs associated with the chain's large network of physical retail outlets has hurt its bottom line, as many of its traditional customers take their business online, CNN Money reported.