Many will remember that back on January 16, 2009 Circuit City announced it was closing all of its stores. With Circuit City’s demise, it was clear that the economic collapse had claimed another victim and a big one at that. But I see that Circuit City is apparently back and has the Circuitcity.com website open and ready for business.

Back from the dead? Well, not quite. Apparently on May 19. 2009, Systemax (SYX) purchased the Circuit City brand name, Circuitcity.com website and Circuit City's customer list of names, emails and other customer information (it’s always comforting to know my personal information can be sold to the highest bidder).

According to its website, Systemax is "a leading multi-channel retailer of computers, electronics, and industrial products in North America and Europe." In business since 1949, Systemax is publicly traded on the NYSE and had sales in excess of $3 billion last year.

Depending on how much money traded hands, it was likely a smart move for Systemax which gets an immediately recognized and trustworthy name like Circuit City to promote its products. A list of past customers is a highly targeted and valuable asset as well. The company followed this strategy before when CompUSA went under. In 2008 it acquired CompUSA’s assets and brand name and reopened the CompUSA website as well as some of the CompUSA stores (some were reopened under the CompUSA name and some under the TigerDirect brand which it acquired in 1995). I actually made my first purchase from TigerDirect back in 1997 and though I haven’t been a very loyal customer since then, I have many friends who are. A wide selection of products, good prices and strong customer service (though the last would certainly be debatable by some) paired with strong brand names like CompUSA and Circuit City could really make Systemax a winner.