NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Coming up on a deadline to raise enough cash and credit to stay alive, RadioShack is reportedly preparing to file for bankruptcy as soon as next month.
The filing could come the first week of February, according to the Wall Street Journal. RadioShack did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CNNMoney.
The company has until Thursday to come up with $100 million in combined cash and available credit, or its major creditors can pull the plug on the long-term financing it needs to survive. RadioShack only had $63 million available heading into the Christmas shopping season.
The struggling electronics retailer has been trying to close 1,100 of its 5,000 stores since March, but it’s an expensive undertaking. It only came up with enough cash to close 175 stores through the end of October.
Once upon a time, RadioShack bragged about its network of stores, saying that 90% of the U.S. population lives or works within a few minutes of one of its locations. But today, when people can easily order the items online, those brick-and-mortar stores are dead weight. The stores are so close to one another they are essentially competing with themselves and are dragging the company down to its third straight year of losses.
