Coby Electronics Acquired by Gordon Brothers Group

But a lawsuit contributed to a string of layoffs and downsizing. Amsterdam-based Philips sued Coby in 2010 for a reseller-agreement breach when Coby China failed to pay royalties for China-manufactured DVD players that Coby distributed in the United States. Philips, who is seeking $20 million in damages, won the suit in March. It is unclear how much the court has awarded Philips.

This year, Coby laid off 42 employees (35 percent of its U.S. staff), which then-president Mike Troetti attributed in May to a decline in sales of certain products, such as DVD players and radios, and shut down its Savannah, Ga. warehouse. The next month Troetti, and 16 others--all marketing and product-management staff and all salespeople except for four--were reportedly laid off. The remaining sales team supposedly was preparing for the company's closing by year's end.

But then in August 2013, Gordon Brothers obtained Coby's fixtures, equipment, intellectual property, global trademarks and patents. The group planned to invest capital into Coby to support product development and create future strategies to attain the late-2013 goal.

Gordon Brothers Group has invested in various brands with the intention of reviving them. It, in turn, has sold brands, like it did two years ago with The Sharper Image, which sold to Iconix for $65.6 million after an almost four-year brand renewal process with the Boston company. Gordon Brothers Group has also successfully reinvented brands, as it did with Linen 'n' Things, which switched focus from operating 371 retail stores across the U.S. and Canada to running a profitable e-commerce site.