Ultimate Electronics was a chain of consumer electronics stores in Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

, Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

, Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

, Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

, and Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

. It is incorporated in the state of Delaware

Delaware

Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...

 and its principal offices are in Thornton, Colorado

Thornton, Colorado

The city of Thornton is a Home Rule Municipality in Adams and Weld counties in the U.S. state of Colorado and a suburb of the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. Thornton is northeast of the state's capital, Denver. The United States Census Bureau that the city population...

. Ultimate began a large expansion campaign in 2000 and by 2004 the company had doubled its store count to 64. Hollywood Video

Hollywood Video

Hollywood Entertainment Corporation , known as Hollywood Video, was a VHS, DVD, and video game rental shop company started in 1988...

 founder and then CEO Mark Wattles acquired 32 stores in a bankruptcy auction thus closing the remaining half. In November 2010, Ultimate Electronics opened a store in Tigard, Oregon

Tigard, Oregon

Tigard is a city in Washington County, Oregon, United States. The population was 48,035 at the 2010 census. As of 2007, Tigard was the state's 12th largest city. Incorporated in 1961, the city is located south of Beaverton and north of Tualatin, and is part of the Portland metropolitan area...

. It is the only store on the west coast, and is owned by the now-defunct Hollywood Video

Hollywood Video

Hollywood Entertainment Corporation , known as Hollywood Video, was a VHS, DVD, and video game rental shop company started in 1988...

founder and CEO Mark Wattles. Wattles had hoped to open 14 more Ultimate Electronics stores in Salem and the Portland Metro Area. Ultimate Electronics is now a privately owned company operated by Ultimate Acquisition Partners, L.P. Ultimate Acquisition Partners, L.P was a division of Wattles Capital Management, LLC. Wattles Capital Management owned 71% of Ultimate Electronics, while Hewlett-Packard Co. owned 25%.

As of January 27, 2011, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, the company listed both assets and debt in the range of $100 million to $500 million. Among the largest unsecured creditors are Video Products Distributors, owed $6.1 million; Valassis Communications Inc., owed $5.6 million; New Age Electronics/Synnex, owed $5.5 million; and Sony Electronics Inc., owed $4.8 million, court papers show. Secured lender General Electric Capital Corp. is owed $64.8 million. This is the second time in 6 years that the company has filed for Chapter 11.

The owners of Ultimate Electronics have asked a U.S. Bankruptcy Court for permission to sell off its inventory and close all 46 stores. Ultimate has an agreement with its consultants to begin going-out-of-business sales no later than February 12, 2011, and to finish the job no later than April 15, court documents said. The going-out-of-business sales concluded by April 13.

External links

• Official site - Defunct as of 14 April 2011