The Latest On The Fry's/Egghead/Outpost Mess
from the the-saga-continues dept
If you've been following the whole mess with Fry's, Outpost, and Egghead, the saga is continuing. Let's see if we can do the quick summary: PC Connection bought Outpost. Fry's tried to outbid PC Connection. Fry's drops that bid and buys Egghead.com instead. PC Connection drops the Outpost deal. Fry's suggests they might drop the Egghead deal and then says that's not true. Fry's then goes back and buys Outpost again. And, now, Fry's says once and for all, that they're dropping the Egghead deal. Egghead is pissed off. They're claiming that Fry's strung them along so they couldn't get money elsewhere. Now, they'll not only have Outpost, but Outpost will have one less competitor since Egghead was killed by Fry's. Did you follow all that? It's a regular e-commerce soap opera.
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Mailicious Intent?
I've seen something similar happen to a local electronics store in Seattle by another local chain. I'm suprised there's not some type of regulations or oversight on business takeovers - especially since their managed and reviewed in our court system.
There has to be some some type of contingency or criteria in the contract that permits Fry's to do this without being stung (or the punitive damages simply were enough to be a deterrent). Here's an ironic twist, even though I'm blogging a Fry's site, I rarely shop there. It's somewhat suprising to see a large electronics chain like Fry's do so well with the proliferation of inexpensive electronic stores.
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