Tough times
A source with inside knowledge of the matter has informed us that microdirect.co.uk, the PC, peripherals and components e-tailer, has gone bankrupt.
We expect a formal announcement to be made tomorrow, but the news has already begun percolating through the channel. We have put several calls into microdirect to get their official line on the matter, but at time of writing there were no senior managers present in the office.
It hasn't been a great month for the UK tech channel so far, with the announcement last week that system builder Mesh had gone into administration after a long struggle to adjust to today's economic realities. Meanwhile Lenovo is looking to take a controlling interest in German system builder Medion.
We will continue to seek clarification from Microdirect, including what this means for creditors. At time of writing it looked like it was still possible to place an order through the website.
UPDATE - 17:30 9 June 2011: We managed to get through to Mohammed Shafiq - general manager at Microdirect - and he confirmed that the company was experiencing cashflow difficulties. He stressed that he's an employee himself, and thus couldn't offer definitive guidance on what this means for the future of the company.
Our impression was that, while the cashflow situation may resolve itself, that can't be assumed. We hope to get further updates as the situation becomes clearer.
