MicroAge was an American technology sales and service company based in Tempe, Arizona founded in 1976 by Jeffrey D. McKeever and Alan P. Hald, originally as part of Paul Terrell's chain of dealerships and franchises under the brand The Byte Shop. The name "MicroAge" is now a dba name for Frontier Technology LLC, also of Tempe, Arizona.
History
In 1980, they opened the first computer store located in a mall in Paradise Valley, Arizona. The store sold computers popular in the early home computer age, such as the Apple II, Northstar, Imsai and Altair computers. Byte Shops of Arizona became MicroAge Computers and developed into a major national distributor as well as having its own chain of stores becoming the most widely known franchiser in the computer industry with over 1000 franchises worldwide. Its primary competitor at the time was ComputerLand, another well-known franchising operation. The company was listed on the Fortune 500 list from 1995-2001. It employed over 6,000 people and generated revenues in excess of $9 billion at its zenith. Between April 1999 and February 2000 MicroAge laid off 1750 employees, and reported a $160 million loss for fiscal year 1999. It had also reported losses for six of the previous nine quarters. In 2000 MicroAge was delisted from the NASDAQ, trading over-the-counter as MICAQ. It subsequently filed for bankruptcy, terminated all business and liquidated all remaining assets to pay creditors. At the time of the initial filing of the bankruptcy in April 2000, it had claimed $620 million in assets and $565 million in liabilities, including $280 million in unsecured debt. When the bankruptcy was announced, MicroAge had 4600 employees, but by March 2001 only 250 employees remained.
Subsidiaries
By February 2000, the company was composed of four subsidiary parts: MicroAge Teleservices, MicroAge Technology Services, Pinacor, and Quality Integration Services. In November 2000, MicroAge Teleservices was sold to that subsidiaries largest customer, United Parcel Service. In December 2000, MicroAge Technology Services was sold to CompuCom, included MicroAge's network of service and support locations. In May 2001 some assets of Pinacor were sold to ScanSource.
Revival of the name
One of the founders of the original business, Jeffrey D. McKeever, subsequently bought the rights to the name "MicroAge" and uses this as a "doing business as" name for Frontier Technology LLC. The new company, headquartered in Tempe, Arizona has a different ownership structure and legal company name from the original MicroAge.
