By Mike Sunnucks | Phoenix Business Journal
SkyMall LLC — the well-known Arizona company whose consumer catalogs are in the seatbacks of commercial airplanes — has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, laid off Phoenix workers and is looking to sell or auction its business assets.
Phoenix-based SkyMall — and is parent company Xhibit Corp. — have filed for bankruptcy protection after facing a liquidity crisis and seeing two major U.S. carriers say they were going to stop carrying the catalogs with quirky gifts.
Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) stopped carrying SkyMall’s catalog last year and Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) will stop the practice this year, according to bankruptcy documents and a declaration by Scott Wiley, CFO and Acting CEO of Xhibit.
Wiley also cited the recession and competition from online retailers such as Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) as hurting SkyMall’s business.
