Circuit City is finished after filing for bankruptcy just before the holiday shopping season. This means there’s one less place to buy notebooks and 30,000 people will soon be out of work.

While Circuit City is one of my least favorite computer retailers it’s always good to have competition. In a lot of towns Best Buy will be the only choice.

Here’s the full press release from Circuit City.

RICHMOND, Va., Jan 16, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ — Circuit City Stores, Inc. announced today that it will seek Bankruptcy Court approval to begin the process to liquidate the assets of the company.

“We are extremely disappointed by this outcome. The company had been in continuous negotiations regarding a going concern transaction. Regrettably for the more than 30,000 employees of Circuit City and our loyal customers, we were unable to reach an agreement with our creditors and lenders to structure a going-concern transaction in the limited timeframe available, and so this is the only possible path for our company,” said James A. Marcum, vice chairman and acting president and chief executive officer for Circuit City Stores, Inc.

Circuit City will provide more details in the near term about the plans for the liquidation of the stores and other assets, the status of the company’s Web site and firedogSM services operations, the status of its Canadian operations and plans for the company’s bankruptcy proceedings.

The company does not anticipate any value will remain from the bankruptcy estate for the holders of the company’s common equity, although this will be determined in the continuing bankruptcy proceedings.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2008. The case number for Circuit City’s Chapter 11 filing is 08-35653. Additional information can be found by visiting the company’s investor information home page at http://investor.circuitcity.com and clicking on “Breaking News” and at the Claims Agent’s Web site at www.kccllc.net/circuitcity.

Circuit City is Liquidating….So Long is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

Circuit City will sell a Satellite notebook package for $649.98 on Black Friday, but the inclusion of Firedog’s installation services maker this package unattractive.

The Toshiba Satellite in this bundle includes an AMD Turion X2 TL-60 dual core processor, 3GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive. Add on the installation of Kaspersky’s Internet security software and Firedog’s optimization service and you’re dealing with a $909.98 MSRP. The $260 in savings comes in the form of $180 in instant savings and an $80 rebate.

If you’re on a budget, avoid this deal at all costs and avoid any package that includes the Circuit City’s Firedog services. Notebooks with similar specs can be found in the $449 to $549 price range this Black Friday that don’t have retail services like Firedog.

Please be sure to check out our holiday giveaways, including the $300,000 HP Magic giveaway where 50 blog readers will win three HP notebooks, an HP TouchSmart Desktop and several accessories . We’re also giving away 20 Seagate Hard Drives. You’ll also get to discover some great Web sites in the process.

Before you get too excited about these and other Black Friday notebooks, please read this recent Notebooks.com article:

15 Tips for Buying a Black Friday Notebook (or Not Buying One)

For more Black Friday Notebook deals, visit the Notebooks.com Black Friday page.

Black Friday: Toshiba Satellite Package for $649 at Circuit City is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

Circuit City will sell the HP Pavilion dv6439nr notebook for $549.99 on Black Friday, after a $150 rebate. Normally priced at $899, this AMD powered notebook is more expensive than the cheapest Black Friday laptops, but the dv6439nr does have 2GB of memory and a webcam.

The dv6439nr is an excellent value at $549 and should satisfy most home users, as long as they don’t plan on using it for serious video gaming or video editing. The 15.4-inch Brightview widescreen display, with 1280×800 resolution, is big enough to fully enjoy movies and show off your latest photos.

It’s powered by an AMD Athlon dual core processor, which is respectable, but far from the fastest AMD mobile processor. It comes with a 160GB hard drive and DVD burner with dual-layer support.

The HP Pavilion dv6439nr is Circuit City’s version of the dv6400 series. Notebooks in this series are sold by several retailers, with each designating the last two digits and letters to differentiate between stores and exact specifications. For this reason, you will not find the dv6439nr at other retailers during the holiday season. Best Buy is selling a similar model- the dv6409nr for $399, but with only 1GB of memory, a slower hard drive and no webcam.

I’m a fan of HP Pavilion dv6400 series notebooks and its entertainment features, including QuickPlay and its dedicated media buttons at the top of the keyboard. If you can’t make it to Circuit City on Black Friday you can still score some deals on their web site throughout the holiday season.

HP Pavilion dv6439 specs:
Display: 15.4-inch WXGA High-Definition Bright View Widescreen Display
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core TK-53 (512KB L2 Cache)
Hard Drive: 160GB 5400RPM
Memory: 2GB DDR2 Memory (2x 1024MB)
Ports: VGA, 3 x USB 2.0, LAN, modem, stereo headphone jack with SPDIF, S-Video, ExpressCard, HP Expansion port/Port replicator
Battery: 6-Cell
Wireless: 802.11b/g
I/O: Keyboard, TrackPad, HP Media Controls, QuickPlay
Optical: SuperMulti 8x DVDRW with Double Layer Support
Weight: 6.14 pounds
Dimensions 14.05-inches wide x 10.12 inched deep x 1 to 1.69-inch thick
Card Reader: 5-in-1

Circuit City Black Friday: HP Pavilion dv6439nr Laptop for $549 is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.