RadioShack

 RadioShack

RadioShack was an American consumer electronics retailer founded in 1921 in Boston, Massachusetts, by Theodore and Milton Deutschmann to provide equipment for amateur radio. The name was a term for a small wooden structure that held a ship’s radio equipment. It had its headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas has approximately 8000 outlets worldwide at its peak in 1999. The stores were located in the United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, Canada, and Australia and the brand name was also licensed to other companies in Asia, North Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. RadioShack has been through the rebranding of names, including Radio Shack Corporation from when it was founded (1921) to 1962, Tandy Corporation from 1962 to 2000, RadioShack Corporation from 2000 to 2015, and General Wireless Operations Incorporation from 2015 to 2020.

In February 2015, RadioShack Corporation filed for protection under bankruptcy law after registering more than 10 consecutive quarterly losses. By this time, it was only operating in the US and Latin America. General Wireless Incorporation bought the assets of RadioShack Corporation in May of that year, including the brand name and related intellectual property, for 2.62 million US dollars. General Wireless Operations was formed as a department to control the functionalities of the acquired assets. However, RadioShack did not just sell to one corporation but also made sales to different entities around the world, including Grupo Gigante, a subsidiary of RadioShack of Mexico that now owns the brand rights in Mexico, Unicomer Group, which is based in El Salvador, now owns rights within the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean, Delta RS based in Egypt now owns rights within North Africa and the Middle East. Other parts of the world had been previously assigned to InterTAN in 1986 (excluding the already mentioned parts of the US, Latin America, the Caribbean, North Africa, and the Middle East) and were not involved in selling brand rights. For example, Australia only sold its branding rights to Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV), a holding company owned by Alex Mehr and Tai Lopez, in 2020.

In March 2017, General Wireless Inc. filed for bankruptcy and announced plans to close shop and move their business online. In November 2020, Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV) acquired RadioShack. Now it operates primarily as an e-commerce website at radioshack.com, a network of independently owned franchised stores, and a parts supplier for Hobby Town USA.