Two companies met the July 18 deadline to express interest in buying Hastings Entertainment, the multimedia retailer that filed for bankruptcy in June. Both the Gordon Brothers Group and Bloomberg L.P. attended a hearing Monday afternoon designed for "interested parties."
Although it wasn't clear Tuesday morning what the two bids entail, Gordon Brothers is a the well-known liquidating company that helped sell off Borders' inventory when efforts to save the chain from folding collapsed. Bloomberg L.P. is the financial services and media company founded by Michael Bloomberg.
At a hearing July 6, a lawyer for Hastings said one company was interested in retaining Hastings as a "going concern" with the intention of keeping its stores open. The company was unidentified at the time, but is presumably Bloomberg.
The next step in the bankruptcy proceedings is an auction set for Wednesday July 20. A hearing to approve the results of the auction is scheduled for July 22. Given that timetable, it is likely that the future of Hastings will be determined by the end of the week.
