Sharper Image’s Chairman Jerry W. Levin was brought in less than two years ago to help turn around the struggling retailer. Now that the high-tech gadget retailer has filed for bankruptcy, Levin says he wants to team up with other investors to buy the company’s businesses or assets.
But 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.
Levin joined the board of Sharper Image in 2006 as a nominee of a group that owned 12.8 percent of the company, including hedge funds Knightspoint Partners and Ramius Capital. A few months later, he helped oust Sharper Image’s founder Richard Thalheimer as CEO, who later also resigned as chairman.
In December, Clinton Group, where Levin is a managing director, announced a 7.2 percent stake in Sharper Image at a time when the stock was trading around $4 a share. The stock closed yesterday at 26 cents a share.
Levin resigned from the Sharper Image board yesterday as a result of his plans to buy the company, which filed for bankruptcy in February.
His exit comes just two months after the beleaguered company named turnaround specialist Robert Conway its new chief executive – the third CEO since Thalheimer was ousted.
Levin was acting as CEO until the company hired Steven Lightman last year. Lightman stepped down earlier this year to make way for Conway.
Sharper Image sells high-tech novelty items such as massage chairs and air purifiers.
The firm’s decline began earlier this decade when concerns were raised over the effectiveness of its popular Ionic Breeze product, which promised to purify the air in people’s homes.
In 2006, Levin, 62, joined the board of hamburger seller Wendy’s International Inc. as a nominee of activist investor Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management.