TigerDirect had originally been founded in 1987 and was one of the first retailers to rush toward the internet, opening its website in 1996, nearly 10 years later. Specializing in electronics, it competed with the likes of Newegg, CompUSA, Best Buy, Micro Center, and others. Where it established quite the name over the years before losing popularity in recent years.
The original company behind it (Systemax Inc) had purchased the rights to brands like CompUSA and Circuit City over the years, keeping the names alive to this very day as online retailers. Systemax was eventually acquired by PCM Inc in 2015, focusing TigerDirect on B2B relationships more than anything, which apparently wasn’t enough to keep the brand going. It was then acquired by Insight in 2019, which ended up being the final owner.
Insight recently decided to pull the plug on TigerDirect, closing the website permanently, and focusing traffic on its main website. Leaving behind a notice that began with “After more than 25 years of providing the brands you trust at the prices you love, TigerDirect.com has been retired. Thank you for your loyalty and support.”
Thus ending another long-lived name. Well-known within the consumer technology world, it will join the graveyard of names that helped shape the early days of the internet. Even though its influence was mostly felt in the beginning and not so much toward the end.
7 Comments
Bring back TigerDirect.com. I enjoyed having the luxury of shopping TigerDirect.com.
In the 90s I personally bought from Tiger Direct and Tiger Software by telephone through catalogues. Thanks to the many friends I made and online imports, I even travelled to Miami and North Carolina. Those were the days!
Jorge Spicel (Chile)
Good riddance. Took way too long to go under after ripping people off with those mail-in rebate scams. Glad they are gone.
You know what? Fuck you! I NEVER had a problem with them. If you were into the rebates that much, I can tell you’re the type of person always looking for free handouts.
wow like rob said i also built my first pc with tigerdirect, and have purchased alot from them over the years now im shocked…dont know who sells this stuff anymore.
Same here Rob. Quite a shock to see this!
Man, kinda sucks , I built my first computer with parts from tiger direct, and many others in fact, I was sitting here just now think I think I want to build another, I wonder what kind of deals tiger direct has going on and that’s when I found out this news!