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Just last week, Circuit City announced plans to close a fifth of its stores.  This morning, they just filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

The petition for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia, listed $3.4 billion in assets and $2.32 billion in liabilities. The company said it is entering court protection owing Hewlett-Packard Co. $119 million and Samsung Electronics Co. $116 million.

According to Bloomberg, Circuit City has lost over $5 billion in market value over the past two years.  It’s a shame to see you go CC, remember all of those good times we’ve had together?

Read [Bloomberg]

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Satellite radio took a hit this past week as WorldSpace filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  Only two weeks ago, both Chief Operating Officers resigned.

WorldSpace is a subscription-based service that broadcasts news, sports, music and educational programming to over 150,000 people.  They charge $5.00 - $10.00 per month for their plans and provide more than 100 channels.  WorldSpace offers the only satellite radio service outside the U.S. (except Japan and South Korea).  Sirius XM is the licensed provider of satellite radio here.  Judith Pryor, Senior Vice President of Worldspace, told me that they do not expect for the U.S. to ever be in their market.  With a reorganization and probable sale in its immediate future, it is uncertain who their audience will be.

Keep reading for the rest on Worldspace and how Sirius is in trouble too…

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It is looking like Helio customers may soon be making their monthly payments to Virgin Mobile. Recent reports coming from a Helio “tipster” are claiming that we can expect to see some of their corporate stores and kiosks begin to close very soon.

It has also been mentioned that Helio and Virgin were looking towards a merger, but it seems that Virgin has backed out of those talks and the merger will not be happening. At least not without some drastic changes first. Those changes are said to be that Helio either considers a bankruptcy claim or a major liquidation. Which seems to fit nicely in line with those stores beginning to close.

Helio, while maybe not offering the widest selection of handsets does at least have a solid group. I would imagine that the customers main change would be who they write their checks to, but I would also hate to see the current selection of Helio handsets to go away, the Ocean for one is a nice, full featured phone at an affordable price. Either way it does not look good for those in the MVNO business, its also pretty safe to say that SK Telecom made a big mistake when they took the controlling stake in Helio.

Via [Gizmodo]

• THQ to close 5 studios, maybe more
• Circuit City files for Chapter 11, bankruptcy protection
• Satellite Radio in Trouble