Dick Smith not sold and is closing stores

All stores excepting airport locations will be closing over the next eight weeks.

The only good news for the 2,910 Australia/NZ staff is that they will rank as priority in unsecured claims which places them ahead of secured creditors so they should be paid out in full.

 

Not good, those monkeys should face charges.

 

It could have made for a really lean, online only retailer like Kogan.

 

Big props to private equity for getting it away at the price they did, and sympathies for the employees, it's particularly rough losing a job in such circumstances.

 

Dick Smith was an OK business...not fantastic, but workable.

The problem wasn't the business...the problem was a predatory, yet somehow, perfectly legal Hedge fund.

Dick Smith disaster in five steps

 

Jaycar has proved it the 'old' Dick Smith still works in this marketplace rather than becoming an has-been in pushing appliances/whitegoods. I love they're saying the affected staff will get their entitlements...of course, the worst case scenario is us tax payers gonna fund it.

 

Forager Funds did an excellent assessment last year. This is not the full version, unfortunately I cannot find the full report: Dick Smith is the Greatest Private Equity Heist of All Time - Forager Funds

Personally, I feel for the 3,000 staff.

 

So as the offers were below liquidation value of stock, the administrators would prefer to close it all down and sack everyone rather than let someone take it over and turn it around and save 2500 jobs. Sounds sensible.

I know whos getting rich out of the administration and its not the shareholders or suppliers or staff.

 

Going to check out the Dicksmith in Parramatta, but I went to the Burwood store a couple of weeks ago to buy some stuff, but they didn't have any stock- GPS, headset and etc

 

I bought a faulty GPS from them. It didnt have a cover for the screen so I presume someone else took it back and it ended up back on the shelf. I wonder if this means I'm stuck with it now

 

How sad for the shareholders, staff and customers.

A bunch of ex-Myer "managers" (and I use the term loosely, given the outcome...) get to run a consumer electronics firm in a public float by a private equity group, and stuff it full of private label stock that no-one seems to want.

And Matt Ryan of Forager Funds calls it out like having a loud hailer in a movie theatre shouting "Fire!".

Can it be described as the biggest pump and dump over the last decade?

Imagine what would happen if the Proceeds of Crime legislation were extended to a "deeming provision" by the ACCC, so the members of numerous Self Managed Super Funds (aka Mums and Dads investing for retirement..) were compensated by the asset sales(+ 33%) of the proponents of the Product Disclosure Statements (apparently defined as ".. the fat bit in front of the application form"...) when it all turned pear-shaped within, say, 3 years from the float.

I am both glad I wasn't a shareholder, and also aghast that the basic retail concept of a stock turn didn't seem to be understood, and subsequently addressed diligently, by the overpaid management of this (ex) retail business.

If only the board had considered replacing the management, and this view may be arguable, by a ham and cheese sandwich, which may have had an equally valid chance of producing a P& L statement that didn't have a minus in front of it.

What a disgrace.

 

I just cant believe that an entire team at a reputable company like Woolworths can buy such a piece of crap

Just emphasises my disgust and disbelief at how useless corporate and overpaid . Incompetent and entitled corporate management are

 

WOW was bagged at the time of PE backed IPO for selling the wonderful business too cheap. At least WOW executives have something to laugh about now.

 

Did the same thing. Thought i could get a printer cheap. They were still more expensive than JB around the corner. No one else seemed be think they were cheaper either. I was thinking only person in there. While JB was packed.

 

You have recourse from the manufacturer