MicroWarehouse was the largest and longest established at the time, direct resellers of branded IT products and services to business in the United Kingdom. At the height of their industry dominance, Micro Warehouse had 3,500 employees in thirteen different countries. By 2000, Micro Warehouse was the leading direct marketer and catalogue retailer of personal computer products, with worldwide sales of $2.6 billion. MicroWarehouse owned and operated the domain names Inmac.co.uk, MacWarehouse.co.uk and MicroWarehouse.co.uk. All three were online, web based, computer hardware and software retailers.

History

The company was originally co founded by Peter Godfrey,

Felix Dennis Felix Dennis (27 May 1947 – 22 June 2014) was an English publisher, poet, spoken-word performer and philanthropist. His company, Dennis Publishing, pioneered computer and hobbyist magazine publishing in the United Kingdom. In more recent times ...

and Bob Bartner in 1987, and was based in South Norwalk, Connecticut. After an initial public offering on December 10, 1992, the company paved the way for a variety of competitors. In the 1990s, Micro Warehouse acquired a large number of similar companies in Europe. Companies were acquired in the United Kingdom, France, The Netherlands, Sweden and Finland.

Inmac Inmac (International Minicomputer Accessories Corporation), which became a publicly traded company, was founded in 1975 in Silicon Valley. The company was first listed on the NASDAQ in 1987 and later merged with MicroWarehouse (Currys plc) in 1996. ...

was also purchased, raising European sales to over $700 million. After growing to become the fifth largest catalogue company in the world and a dominant re seller for Apple, Microsoft, and many other hardware manufacturers and software publishers, a class action lawsuit distracted senior management for several years.

Jerry York Jerry York (born July 25, 1945) is an American former ice hockey coach who was the men's ice hockey coach at Boston College. York is the winningest coach in NCAA hockey, and leads the all-time list as the only Division I head coach with over 1,0 ...

CFO The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...

who led turnarounds at IBM and

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

, was the

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

, and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

. The

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

buyout firm Freeman, Spogli, York, and a group of private investors including

Michael Ovitz Michael Steven Ovitz (born December 14, 1946) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He was a talent agent who co-founded Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in 1975 and served as its chairman until 1995. Ovitz later served as preside ...

and

Gary L. Wilson Gary L. Wilson is an American business executive. He served as chairman of the board of Northwest Airlines, chief financial officer of Walt Disney Company and chief financial officer of Marriott Corporation. Early life Wilson was born and raised ...

, spent $725 million to take Micro Warehouse private in February 2000. The

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loan ...

left the company burdened with $200 million in debt. The company sold its North American operations to CDW Corporation just two and a half years later, on September 8, 2003, for $22 million. Micro Warehouse filed for

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

bankruptcy protection and York announced his resignation. The bankrupt company owed millions to its unsecured creditors. $17.9 million to

Ingram Micro Ingram Micro is an American distributor of information technology products and services. The company is based in Irvine, California, U.S. and has operations around the world. History Ingram Micro's origins trace back to the founding of distrib ...

, $8.6 million to

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

, $3.1 million to

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...

, and $2 million to IBM. MicroWarehouse, along with Equanet and MacWarehouse are the three brands owned by

Dixons Retail plc Dixons Retail plc was one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in Europe. In the United Kingdom, the company operated Currys, Currys Digital, PC World (with stores increasingly dual branded 'Currys PC World'), Dixons Travel and its ser ...

. WHSU Inc. and WHSU International Inc. (together known as MicroWarehouse) was acquired by the DSGi on 4 June 2004. On 9 October 2003, MicroWarehouse filed bankruptcy, which ultimately led to purchase of the MicroWarehouse by the group. When MicroWarehouse was acquired by the group, it became a division of PC World Business.

MacWarehouse closure

In June 2012, the MacWarehouse website was replaced by a simple banner that redirected you to the website for PC World Business.

References

External links

Company website
{{Currys plc Consumer electronics retailers of the United Kingdom Currys plc Retail companies established in 1987 Retail companies disestablished in 2012