Tower Records On The Ropes
Tower Records, overwhelmed with mounting debt, may be on the brink of going under. Recently, all the major labels were forced to stop shipments to the once high-flying retailed due to non-payment. Chief executive Joe D’Amico, recruited to manage the current crisis and possible bankruptcy, appears to have failed in his mission and is now possilby setting the stage for a straight liquidation, depending largely on decision of chief banking lender CIT Financial.
The fall of Tower Records is obviously not what recording labels are interested in since they granted the retailer a top award at the recent NARM convention. However, they do want to get paid and it looks like even the support of the industy will not outweigh the labels financial priorities.
Tower has been teetering on the brink for several years, but if the company does go down, it would be a major symbolic loss for the brick-in-mortal music retail segment.
