The near-century old Radio Shack Corp. readies shutting up shop on a bankruptcy deal that would have Sprint Corp. gaining half its stores and shutting down the rest of the electronic retailer's chain.

At present, RadioShack has operated over 4,000 U.S. stores, of which Sprint discusses acquiring 1,300-2,000. In other talks, RadioShack is even considering keeping the household name, brewing the idea of  a store-within-a-store, for wireless carriers. Sources continue by saying that Sprint and RadioShack have even discussed co-branding the stores.

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 However, Bloomberg sees another bidder could surface to buy electronics company. The Wall Street Journal gives Standard General, a hedge fund and the largest shareholder in Radhioshack, as a possible contender.  Both Sprint and RadioShack however declined to comment.

Meanwhile. the New York Stock Exchange said its regulatory arm is already on the move to delist RadioShack shares, and immediately suspend their trading. This follows RadioShack's non-compliance in submitting a business plan to the bourse in the course of 45 days.

Note that a notification is sent to companies that are unable to maintain an average market capitalization of $50 million in a month's time (i.e. 30 days).

Talks of RadioShack's bankruptcy filled the air early third quarter last year when the company announced its possibility if a sale or restructuring talks with investors did not push through.

The trouble began with the company unable to keep up with the onset of mobile devices despite its historic dominance as the go-to shop for innovators and engineers. It has since fallen behind the likes of Amazon.com Inc and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Last October, RadioShack sought the conversion of a $120 million loan by investors like Standard General and Litespeed Management LLC, into equity.

Issues of the company had once reached a high of $79.50  in the 90's during the dotcom bubble but has since shrank to $0.24 on Monday, losing 90 percent of its value over the past year.

TagsRadio Shack, Sprint, Shutdown