Great American buys Tower Records for liquidation

Great American Group, a retail liquidation firm, last weekend began the liquidation and going-out-of-business sales for Tower Records, also known as MTS Inc. The sale of assets will continue until all inventory has been liquidated, Great American says.

Great American announced the liquidation after winning a $134.3 million bid for all assets of the California-based music retailer, including leases and properties. A federal bankruptcy judge approved the sale on Friday.

Tower, which had been No. 212 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in August. Tower cited the industrywide decline in music sales, the downloading of online music and competition from big-box stores such as Wal-Mart as reasons for its financial problems.

The music retailer, which opened one of the first Internet music stores on America Online in June 1995 and followed a year later with the launch of Tower.com, owed creditors about $200 million. The company also owned 89 stores in 20 states.