SAN FRANCISCO–Troubled multichannel retailer The Sharper Image has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and has filed a motion for debtor-in-possession financing.
A Sharper Image statement said the company “intends to conduct business as usual while it devotes renewed efforts to resolve its operational and liquidity problems and develops a reorganization plan.” The filing, submitted to U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, listed the company’s assets as totaling $251.5 million and total debts as $199 million. Among Sharper Image’s largest creditors holding unsecured claims are Philips Consumer Electronics at $913,399, and Panasonic at $614,552.
Last week, Sharper Image said the company had hired Robert Conway, founding member of Conway, Del Genio, Gries & Co., a financial-advisory firm, as chief executive officer, successor Steven Lightman, who had assumed the president and CEO posts less than one year ago. The bankruptcy filing said Conway had been elected CEO “until his successor shall be duly elected.”