Circuit City quarterly loss widens

RICHMOND, Va. Circuit City’s financial troubles continue, as the company today reported a wider net loss and a sales decrease for the third quarter.

The company reported that net loss from continuing operations for the quarter totaled $208 million, or $1.26 per share, compared to a net loss of $19.9 million, or 12 cents per share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2007.

For the third quarter, the company reported that net sales decreased 3.1% to $2.96 billion from $3.06 billion in the same period last year, with consolidated comparable-store sales decreasing 5.6%. Comparable-store sales increased 5.2% for the third quarter 2006.

"We are very dissatisfied with our third quarter results," said Philip Schoonover, chairman, president and ceo of Circuit City Stores. "We underestimated the financial impact from the disruption of our transformation work, which contributed to lower close rates, reduced attachments of higher margin accessories and firedog services and lower extended warranty net sales as compared with the prior year. As a result, we are reporting lower sales and higher net losses in the quarter than last year's third quarter.