Sharper Image Corp

* of San Francisco said first-quarter net income was $682 million, or 5 cents a share, compared with $149 million, or 1 cent, a year earlier. Sales rose 27% to $119.8 million.

Bankrupt retailer Sharper Image Corp. will be sold to a joint venture of private investment groups, the groups said Wednesday. The joint venture led by Toronto-based investment firm Hilco Consumer Capital and a unit of Boston-based liquidation firm Gordon Bros. said it had won its so-called stalking-horse bid for the retailer of high-end gadgets and appliances.

Electronics retailer Sharper Image Corp. agreed Friday to stop selling personal breathalyzers and pay $1.2 million in restitution as part of a settlement regarding the devices. The company incorrectly claimed the digital breath alcohol testers were accurate to 0.001 of a percentage point of blood-alcohol content, according to tests by San Diego's Consumer Protection Unit. Sharper Image also agreed to pay $100,000 in penalties for inaccurately advertising the effectiveness of the testers.

A weak holiday season and a struggling economy have led Sharper Image Corp. and Lillian Vernon Corp. to file for Bankruptcy Court protection, and analysts predict that others could soon follow them as retail spending worsens. "You'll see a record number of bankruptcies over the next 50, 100 and 1,000 days," said Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of the New York-based retail consulting firm Strategic Resource Group. "Consumers are cash and credit constrained.

Sharper Image Corp., the electronics retailer that restated earnings after an investigation into stock options grants, said chief accounting officer Daniel W. Nelson had stepped down. Rebecca Roedell, chief financial officer, will serve as interim accounting chief, the San Francisco-based company said in a U.S. regulatory filing.

Sharper Image Corp. said restatements would cut past earnings by about $4.5 million because of errors in accounting for product cost increases. Earnings will drop by about $500,000 in the first three quarters of the fiscal year ended Jan. 31.

Sharper Image Corp. said fourth-quarter profit rose 46% because the company sold more products at full price. Net income increased to $16.8 million, or $1.21 a share, from $11.6 million, or 92 cents, a year earlier, the company said. Sales increased 2% to $220.7 million. Shares of San Francisco-based Sharper Image fell 29 cents to $15.34 on Nasdaq.

Sharper Image Corp., a retailer of unusual gadgets and electronic toys, said sales through its Web site surged sixfold from Dec. 1 to Dec. 21. The company, which had revenue of $216.8 million last year, also said same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, rose 9%, while mail-order sales rose 27%. The December increase will significantly affect earnings for the year, Sharper Image said. The San Francisco-based company operates 86 stores throughout the U.S.

Sharper Image Corp. reported lower fiscal fourth-quarter profit due to less-than-successful product introductions, a soft economy and a 6% decline in same-store sales. Profit declined to $16.4 million, or $1.01 a share, from $22.2 million, or $1.37, a year ago. Revenue increased 8% to $301 million but the company said a soft economy and some new product introductions that proved "less than successful" hurt earnings.

The setup: You're an average affluent American enjoying the fruits of your labor. One day--on account of flood, fire, civil disturbance, power grid overload, whatever--the electricity is cut off to your house. All your lights fail, and every one of your major appliances reverts to inanimate metal or plastic.

Shares of San Francisco-based retailer Sharper Image Corp., known for selling such items as massage chairs, air purifiers and nose-hair trimmers, soared 45% on Thursday after six top company executives bought shares this week. The stock rose 85 cents to $2.72. The six insiders paid $1.78 to $1.90 a share.

Sharper Image Corp., the electronics retailer that restated earnings after an investigation into stock options grants, said chief accounting officer Daniel W. Nelson had stepped down. Rebecca Roedell, chief financial officer, will serve as interim accounting chief, the San Francisco-based company said in a U.S. regulatory filing.

Sharper Image Corp.'s website has been counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds to Father's Day. It's that important -- not necessarily to shoppers, but certainly to Sharper Image. The purveyor of air purifiers, massage chairs and nose-hair trimmers loves Father's Day, its second-most-important sales-generating holiday.

A buyout firm has doubled its stake in Sharper Image Corp. by buying a large block of stock from the company's deposed founder, raising the prospect that the ailing specialty retailer might be taken private as it tries to bounce back. Sharper Image's stock price shot up by 15% on Thursday after a Securities and Exchange Commission filing disclosed an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners Inc. had paid $13.78 million for 1.

Struggling specialty retailer Sharper Image Corp. hired direct marketing veteran Steven A. Lightman in its latest attempt to end a bruising sales slump that has lasted for more than two years. The San Francisco-based company said Monday that Lightman would take over as president and chief executive April 9. He will also join Sharper Image's board of directors.

Sharper Image Corp., which sells products including robotic vacuum cleaners and massage chairs, forecast a wider-than-expected fiscal second-quarter loss Thursday amid falling sales and higher expenses. The shares fell as much as 22% in trading after the markets closed. The company forecast a net loss for the quarter ending July 31 of 40 cents to 45 cents a share, compared with a 16-cent loss estimate, based on the average of 12 analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

Sharper Image Corp. settled a class-action lawsuit with 3.2 million buyers of its Ionic Breeze device, which the company sells as an air purifier. Machines will be tested to ensure that they meet industry standards concerning ozone emissions, advertisements will be changed and anyone who bought the product after May 6, 1999, will get $19 in merchandise credit at Sharper Image stores, the San Francisco-based company said in a regulatory filing.

Struggling specialty retailer Sharper Image Corp. chopped more than $3 million from the severance pay of recently departed Chief Executive Richard Thalheimer to offset his past windfalls from favorably priced stock options, according to documents filed with securities regulators. The pay package, disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late last week, includes retirement benefits of $3.9 million and a severance payment of $1.