History
The Sharper Image Corporation was the brainchild of Richard Thalheimer. The company started as a catalog business to sell jogging watches.
In 2006 there was a change in the board of directors of the company, including the removal of Thalheimer as CEO.
Thalheimer was replaced by Chairman Jerry W. Levin, who was formerly Chairman and CEO of American Household/Sunbeam, Coleman, and Revlon, and under whom Sunbeam Products/American Household had filed for bankruptcy in 2001.
On April 9, 2007, Steven A. Lightman became the President and CEO. In May 2007, the company announced the hiring of Rebecca Roedell as Chief Financial Officer.
Levin is also Chairman & CEO of JW Levin Partners LLC, a management and investment firm, since February 2005. And as of October 2009, is Chairman and Interim CEO of Wilton Brands, Inc. Levin was Vice Chairman of Clinton Group, a private diversified asset management company, between December 2007 and October 2008. On February 8, 2008, 11 days before he announced the Sharper Image bankruptcy filing, JWL Partners Acquisition Corp., a SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company, submitted an IPO filing. The filing showed US$200 million proceeds targeted. The underwriting group was listed as Credit Suisse and Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. They applied to list under the ticker “JWL.U” on the American Stock Exchange. The filing stated that the blank check corporation intends to acquire or acquire control of one or more businesses. The filing was eventually withdrawn due to the economic market conditions.
On April 10, 2008, Levin resigned as a member and Chairman of the Board of the company to pursue participating with other investors to acquire some or all of the company’s businesses or assets. But, as was pointed out, "Levin hasn't made a lot of money for the investors of Sharper Image he's teamed up with so far, including hedge fund Ramius Capital, which helped bring him in as a director, and Clinton Group, which announced a large stake in December." Under Levin, the company's stock price had fallen from about $40 three years ago to about 23 cents (a "paltry" $3.6 million market capitalization) at the time of his departure, on the over-the-counter pink sheets. His group's bid did not succeed.
In May 2007, Thalheimer created his own e-commerce site http://richardsolo.com, which has no affiliation with The Sharper Image, and sells items that were typical of the Sharper Image when its focus was offbeat consumer electronics.
Read more about this topic: The Sharper Image
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