Harvey Norman grabs part of Dick Smith wreckage

One part of the Dick Smith business has been snapped up by an entity affiliated with Harvey Norman, although employees will still need to wait for a liquidation process to receive overdue entitlements.

Apple product supplier Mac-1, which focused on enterprise and corporate IT solutions, was placed into administration separate from the rest of the Dick Smith empire when it encountered trouble in January.

McGrathNicol handled the administration, with Jason Preston, Jamie Harris, Matt Caddy and Joe Hayes appointed administrators.

Business News understands Mr Hayes wrote to Mac-1 employees today to inform them that the business and assets of Mac-1 would be sold to HN Mac 1, affiliated with retailer Harvey Norman.

But employee entitlements could not be paid until the company itself was placed in liquidation, Mr Hayes wrote, because those were a claim against Mac-1.

He said he expected that would happen at a second creditor meeting to be held in June at the latest.

Mac-1 was purchased by Dick Smith nearly two years ago for the reported price of $1.

The chain had two stores in Western Australia, at Westfield Innaloo and in the Perth CBD, and a number of others interstate.

It comes just days after Kogan.com reportedly revived the Dick Smith online brand, which it bought in March.

Dick Smith entered administration in January, with receivers having then undertaken a program to find a buyer for all or part of the business

The receivership was managed by Ferrier Hodgson, and was eventually unsuccessful in finding a suitable expression of interest to buy the company.

At that point, Ferrier undertook a process to sell remaining Dick Smith stock and close down stores.