Notes from Mars - Big Deals

South Florida CEO, Nov, 2002

* Fort Lauderdale-based Mars Music, a chain of music-equipment stores, has abandoned efforts at bankruptcy reorganization and begun the process of liquidating its remaining inventory, which was valued at the end of October at $54 million. Boston-based Gordon Brothers Retail Partners, which bid on the stores' inventory at a recent bankruptcy auction, bid 785 percent of the value of the remaining merchandise and 30 percent of the value of the chain's rental goods -- or about $42 million -- and has started "going-out-of-business" sales at all of the Mars stores.

It's still unknown how much Mars' creditors will receive.