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TigerDirect is a El Segundo, California-based online retailer dealing in
electronics, computers, and computer components that caters to business
and corporate customers. Previously owned by Systemax, the brand
was known for its acquisitions of the intellectual property of the
defunct U.S. retail chains Circuit City and CompUSA, and relaunching
them as online retailers. The two brands were subsequently shuttered and
consolidated into the TigerDirect site. In 2015, TigerDirect
phased out all of its remaining brick-and-mortar retail operations, and
PCM Inc. acquired Systemax's online North American technology retail
business. The company was founded as BLOC Development Corp., a
publisher of utility and application software products starting with
FormTool, in 1985. The original company was a pioneer in utility
software with several top 10 titles. The original founders were: Frank
Millman, Jorge Torres, Tim McGuinness, Frank Haggar, Phil Bolin, Stephan
Whitney, and Bob Horton. Frank Milman and Jorge Torres conceptualized
the first product "FormTool", then the development team led by Tim
McGuinness, Ph.D. developed the initial and several successful follow-on
versions.
In 1989, Tiger Software became a subsidiary of publicly held Bloc
Development Corporation. BLOC Development was also the parent company of
BLOC Publishing (a sister company of TigerSoftware), which continued the
development and publishing of the company's flagship product "FormTool",
and 20 other products; and SoftSync, former publisher of the "EXPERT
Software" titles and the Macintosh accounting software "Accountant
Inc."). BLOC Development later changed its name to TigerDirect.
TigerDirect abandoned the profitable software development in favor of
the TigerSoftware catalog by 1991. Unfortunately, the new model under
the leadership of Gilbert Fiorentino was unprofitable, and the company
was sold in distress to Global DirectMail (now known as Systemax). In
1994 TigerDirect launched a series of profitable smaller catalogs that
included GraphicsExpress, as well as CDROM and MAC catalogs. In 1996,
after an aborted attempt at acquisition by Hanover House, it was
acquired by Systemax (NYSE: SYX)[3] The commercial website
TigerDirect.com was launched in 1995 by Tim McGuinness, Ph.D. (one of
the original Bloc Development Founders), selling computer and
electronics, books and software. In 2000, the firm expanded its product
offerings to include "refurbished" and "recertified" products,
brand-name computers from IBM, HP, eMachines, Gateway and others. |
