Newegg

History

The company was founded by Fred Chang, a U.S. immigrant from Taiwan, in 2001. 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. He was succeeded by Tally Liu. Chang also retained his position as President of Newegg's Chinese operations. In 2010, upon the departure of Liu, Chang took up his old role as CEO of the company.

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. 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 in which contestants submitted pictures, descriptions, and directions describing how to personalize their computers with esoteric appearances and functions.

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. The company has no relation to the Egghead Software chain that was active from 1984-2001.

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 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 managed by JP Morgan, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Citi. In 2011, the company withdrew its registration for filing for an IPO, saying it would continue to explore alternative options for funding.

Counterfeit Intel processors

In March 2010, Newegg sold 300 counterfeit Intel Core i7-920 CPUs. The problem was first exposed by a member of the website HardOCP who posted on the site's forum about receiving the fake CPU. 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. 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.

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." 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."

Patent troll cases

Newegg has become known as a company that fights "patent trolls".

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. 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.

In November 2013, Newegg lost a case in Texas against patent troll TQP Development over Newegg's use of 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. On July 15th, 2015, US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap ruled that Newegg doesn't infringe a patent belonging to TQP Development.

Websites

Newegg.com—principal site, for customers in the United States

Newegg.ca—for customers in Canada.

Newegg.cn—for customers in China

Newegg.com.tw—for customers in Taiwan

NeweggBusiness.com—for SMBs, corporations, resellers, government institutions (federal, state, local) and non-profit organizations. For United States customers.

NeweggFlash.com—Newegg's "deal of the day" website for customers in the United States

ChiefValue.com—sister website of Newegg.com which offers mainly computer products (no longer operating)

ABS.com—Newegg's IT systems integrator brand

Rosewill.com—Newegg's computer peripheral brand

Nutrend.com—Newegg's automotive product brand

GameCrate—Video Game Reviews, News and Trailers. Launched by NewEgg in March 2014.

Awards

Newegg has been the recipient of various awards, including:

Computer Shopper Shoppers' Choice Awards: 2011, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003

Forbes.com Best of the Web