Report :RadioShack May Close Half Of Its Retail Locations; NYSE Suspends Trading

(RTTNews) - RadioShack Corp. (RSH) is preparing to shut down the retail chain in a bankruptcy deal that would sell about half its store leases to Sprint Corp. (S) and close the rest, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.

The locations sold to Sprint would operate under the wireless carrier's name, meaning RadioShack would cease to exist as a stand-alone retailer, the report said.

According to the report, the negotiations could still break down without a deal being reached, or the terms could change. Sprint and RadioShack also have discussed co-branding the stores. It's also possible that another bidder could emerge that would buy RadioShack and keep it operating. The Chinese backers who took the Brookstone chain out of bankruptcy, Sanpower Group, also have been in discussions about bidding for RadioShack assets.

Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange or NYSE announced Monday that the staff of NYSE Regulation, Inc. is taking action to delist the common stock of RadioShack Corporation, Inc. from the NYSE. The NYSE will immediately suspend trading in the common stock.

NYSE said that the decision was reached in view of the fact that the Company does not intend to submit a business plan to address its noncompliance with the NYSE's continued listing standard in Section 802.01B of the Listed Company Manual that requires maintenance of either an average global market capitalization over a consecutive 30 trading day period of at least $50 million or stockholders' equity of at least $50 million.

On Sunday, Wall Street Journal had reported that Hedge fund Standard General LP was in talks to serve as the lead bidder at a bankruptcy auction for struggling consumer-electronics retailer RadioShack Corp.

RadioShack closed Monday's regular trading at $0.2402, down $0.0369 or 13.32%. In after-hours, the share further dropped $0.08 or 33.39%.