Newegg

Newegg Inc.
Private
Industry Computers
Computer hardware
Computer software
Consumer electronics
Consumer (final) goods
Founded 2001 (2001)
Founders Fred Chang
Headquarters City of Industry, California, U.S.
Key people
 Fred Chang (global CEO)
Products Computer hardware, software, peripherals, gaming, electronics, accessories, DVDs, housewares, appliances, tools, furniture, office products and more
Revenue IncreaseUS$2.7 billion (2013)[1][2]
IncreaseUS$24.9 million (2009)[3]
Number of employees
 2,600 (2013)[2]
Website newegg.com

Newegg Inc. (formerly Newegg.com Inc., stylized as newegg) is an online retailer of computer hardware and software. It is based in City of Industry, California, United States.

History

Newegg booth at a LAN party event.

The company was founded by Fred Chang, a U.S. immigrant from Taiwan, in 2001.[4] Chang was Newegg's chairman and CEO until August 1, 2008 when it was announced he would step down as CEO and chairman while remaining a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee.[5][6] He was succeeded by Tally Liu.[7] Chang also retained his position as President of Newegg's Chinese operations.[5][6][8] In 2010, upon the departure of Liu, Chang took up his old role as CEO of the company.[7]

In 2005, Newegg.com was named one of the Internet's Top 10 retailers by Internet Retailer Magazine, with 2004 sales revenue of just under $1 billion. Newegg.com grew an additional 30% in 2005, bringing annual sales to approximately $1.3 billion. Newegg launched NeweggMall.com in July 2008, Newegg.ca in October 2008, and NeweggBusiness.com in August 2009. In 2009, it was listed as #234 on the Forbes America's Largest Private Companies list.[2] It launched Newegg Marketplace in 2010 and exceeded $2.5 billion in revenue that year. The company has about 2,500 employees.

Newegg also sponsors technology industry events and PC gaming tournaments for titles including Counter-Strike, Warcraft III and Rome: Total War. Newegg had a monthly Case Mod contest in 2005, where contestants submitted pictures, descriptions, and directions describing how to mod their computers into esoteric appearances and functionalities.

Name

Traditionally, the egg is a symbol of birth and unlimited potential. The founders selected “Newegg” as the company name to signify new hope for e-commerce during a period when e-commerce businesses were struggling to survive.[9] The company has no relation to the Egghead Software chain that was active from 1984-2001.[10]

Initial Public Offering (IPO)

On September 28, 2009, Newegg Inc filed for an IPO (initial public offering) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing also stated that Newegg has been profitable every year since 2001 and generated sales of $2.1 billion in 2008. The company's largest outside shareholder is New York-based venture-capital firm Insight Venture Partners. The IPO was being managed by JP Morgan, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Citi.[11] In 2011, the company withdrew its registration for filing for an IPO, saying it would continue to explore alternative options for funding.[12]

Counterfeit Intel processors

In March 2010, Newegg sold 300 counterfeit Intel Core i7-920 CPUs.[13] The problem was first exposed by a member of the website HardOCP who posted on the site's forum about receiving the fake CPU.[14] Newegg at first released a statement saying that the processors were "demo units", but later said that they discovered that the processors were actually counterfeit, and that the company was terminating its relationship with one supplier in response.[15] The company offered replacement units to the customers who received counterfeit processors, while Intel stated that they had been made aware of the problem and were investigating as well.[16]

Litigation

On February 10, 2010, Newegg was sued by three former employees accusing it of numerous labor and business abuses, such as violating "a slew of labor laws, overworking and abusing immigrant workers, and ordering employees to hack into competitors' computer systems."[17] In an official statement denying the claims in the lawsuit, the company stated:

"Newegg is aware of the allegations made by two former employees and a former consultant. Newegg has always taken pride in the fairness of our labor and hiring practices and to ethical business practices toward our competitors, vendors and most of all, our valued customers. We have always been fully committed to compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Accordingly, we strongly deny the assertions made by the individuals filing this lawsuit, and intend to defend ourselves vigorously and thoroughly against claims that have neither merit nor basis in fact."[18]

Patent troll cases

Newegg has become known as a company that fights "patent trolls".[19][20]

In January 2013, Newegg won a victory over Soverain Software when the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned the district court ruling in favour of Soverain and invalidated a shopping cart patent by citing prior art from 1984, CompuServe’s Electronic Mall.[21][22] On January 13th, 2014, the Supreme Court refused Soverain Software's petition for writ of certiorari to rehear a January 2013 decision of the Court of Appeals, effectively ending Soverain's case.[23]

In November 2013, Newegg lost a case in Texas against patent troll TQP Development over Newegg using the https:// protocol mixing SSL and RC4. Whitfield Diffie and Ron Rivest, the inventors of public-key cryptography and RC4 encryption respectively, testified for Newegg.

On July 6, 2015, after 20 months of waiting, Newegg filed an extraordinary petition urging US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap to issue judgement so that they would be able to file an appeal.[24] On July 15th, 2015, US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap ruled that Newegg doesn't infringe a patent belonging to TQP Development.[25]

Locations

Online storefronts

Warehouses

United States

Canada

China

  1. Changning District
  2. Xuhui District
  3. Luwan District
  4. Hongkou District
  5. Putuo District
  6. Baoshan District
  7. Minhang District
  8. Pudong District

Awards

Newegg has been the recipient of various awards, including:

Rankings
Ranking / Details Who When
Ranked 12th Largest Consumer Electronic Dealer Top 100 TWICE / Stevenson Company[30] (2010)
Top 100 Fastest Growing Private Company in Los Angeles Los Angeles Business Journal (2006, 2007)
Number 1 in Response Time and Consistency, Number 4 in Availability Gomez.com Business Process Benchmark (October 31, 2007)
Tied for 6th place in Top 100 Online Retail Satisfaction Index Internet Retailer (2007) Rankings
Ranks in Top U.S. Online Retailer—Overall #10, Computer/Electronics #5, Internet Only #2 Internet Retailer (2007) Rankings
Ranked 18th Largest Consumer Electronic Dealer Top 100 TWICE / Stevenson Company[30] (2007)
Ranked #11 by Gross Dollar Growth and #17 by Revenue Growth in Inc. 5000 Privately Held Growth Companies Inc. Magazine (2007)
Ranked #234 in Forbes Largest Private Companies in America[2] Forbes 10/28/2009
Ranked in Top 10 Largest Internet Retailers Internet Retailer[31] 8/6/2007
Inc. Magazine's List of America's 500 Fastest-growing Private Companies Inc. Magazine 9/20/2006
Ranked #10 on Internet Retailer's Top 500 Internet Retailer 7/1/2006
Top 100 CE Retailers Top 100 TWICE / Stevenson Company[30] 5/8/2006
Ranked #2 Among L.A.'s Largest Minority-Owned Businesses Los Angeles Business Journal 3/27/2006
Ranks In Top 10 Among L.A.'s Fastest Growing Private Companies Los Angeles Business Journal 11/14/2005
Ranks In Top 20 Among L.A.'s Largest Private Companies Los Angeles Business Journal 10/24/2005
Ranked #9 On Internet Retailer's Top 400 Internet Retailer 8/1/2005

References

  1. ↑ Fact Sheet
  2. 1 2 3 4 Forbes - #178 Newegg.com
  3. ↑ SEC filing
  4. ↑ Quinn, Michelle (2007-12-29). "Branching out from techie heaven". LA Times. Retrieved 2008-11-21.
  5. 1 2 "Newegg Announces Major Change in Executive Leadership | Market Wire | Find Articles at BNET". Findarticles.com. 2008-08-01. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
  6. 1 2 "Fred Chang, Founder and Chairman of the Board, Newegg Inc., City Of Industry, CA". Spoke. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
  7. 1 2 Wauters, Robin (16 August 2010). "Its IPO Still Nowhere In Sight, Newegg CEO Tally Liu Is Out". TechCrunch. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  8. ↑ Hesseldahl, Arik (2005-11-18). "Where the Tech Buffs Shop". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 2006-12-22.
  9. ↑ "Newegg.com". Retrieved 2009-12-15.
  10. ↑ "Resellers Add Newegg.com To The Menu". CRN Magazine. Retrieved 2013-10-24.
  11. ↑ Wahba, Phil (2009-09-28). "UPDATE 1-Venture-owned e-commerce co Newegg files for IPO". Reuters.
  12. ↑ Brohan, Mark (2011-06-01). "Newegg formally withdraws its IPO". Internet Retailer.
  13. ↑ Murph, Darren (March 7, 2010). "NewEgg sells 300 counterfeit Core i7-920 CPUs, KIRFers pump their fists". Engadget. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Intel, Newegg Investigate Sale Of Fake Chips". CRN Magazine. March 8, 2010. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  15. ↑ "Newegg Axes Supplier Over Fake Intel Chips". InformationWeek. March 9, 2010. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  16. ↑ Crothers, Brooke (March 8, 2010). "Newegg probes shipments of fake Intel chips". CNET. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  17. ↑ Raft of Labor Abuses Alleged at Newegg
  18. ↑ Newegg Press Release on Lawsuit
  19. ↑ Newegg nukes “corporate troll” Alcatel in third patent appeal win this year; arstechnica; May 16, 2013.
  20. ↑ Court Rulings Show Abusive Patent Litigators Can Be Beaten (But Is It Worth The Cost?); Forbes; September 11, 2013.
  21. ↑ How Newegg crushed the “shopping cart” patent and saved online retail; arstechnica; January 27, 2013.
  22. ↑ “Shopping cart” patent troll tries to save itself, gets pounded by Newegg; artstechnica; September 6, 2013.
  23. ↑ http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-scotus-newegg-soverain-20140113,0,4266893.story
  24. ↑ After 20-month delay, a furious Newegg still can’t appeal $2.3M patent loss; Ars Technica; July 6, 2015.
  25. ↑ 2:11-cv-00248-JRG Document 461; Docket Alarm; July 15, 2015.
  26. ↑ "How do I create a NeweggBusiness Account?". Retrieved 2010-11-28.
  27. ↑ "22nd Annual Shoppers' Choice Awards". Computer Shopper (US magazine). Retrieved 2008-12-06.
  28. ↑ "21st Annual Shoppers' Choice Awards". Computer Shopper (US magazine). Retrieved 2008-12-06.
  29. ↑ "Forbes.com Best of The Web". Forbes.com. Retrieved 2008-12-06.
  30. 1 2 3 "Top 100 Methodology: How We Crunched The Numbers". TWICE.
  31. ↑ "Newegg Among Top 10 Largest Internet Retailers".

External links

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