RadioShack Corp.’s fate hangs in the balance Monday when a bankruptcy auction kicks off, pitting companies that want to liquidate the electronic retailer’s remaining assets against a hedge fund that has pledged to keep about half the chain’s stores open, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. There is little doubt hedge fund Standard General LP is the sole hope of survival for the company that introduced generations of consumers to electronic toys from ham radios, walkie-talkies, citizens-band radios and calculators to computers and cellphones. Other than liquidators, no other contenders surfaced in weeks of heavy marketing or in the year before the February bankruptcy filing. Hon. Brendan Linehan Shannon, who will make the call on RadioShack, ordered Tower Records sold to liquidators who narrowly won a 30-hour auction in 2006 over a rival who wanted to keep the chain open. The difference in the purchase price — $500,000 — resulted in 2,700 workers being laid off.
