PC Club, a California personal computer retailer that abruptly shut down 37 stores nationwide on Tuesday because of mounting financial problems, on Friday reopened all of them including three in Utah after a white knight emerged with a bailout offer.

The City of Industry, Calif., company stunned its 300 workers including 20 in Orem, Riverdale and Murray on Tuesday when it suddenly closed its operations in Utah, Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington. It also shuttered its online Web sites, PCClub.com and ClubIT.com.

"We were totally shocked by the emergency closure at first, and then the second shock came when we were told we had our jobs back," said Steven Hsu, PC Club's assistant marketing manager. "Everybody was called back to work on Friday. Instead of being laid off, we had a two-day vacation."

The company was preparing to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy in California on Tuesday afternoon when NAOC Holdings, a $200 million venture capital firm in Los Angeles, jumped in with a bailout offer that enabled PC Club to pay off its vendors and other obligations, Hsu said.

"Some vendors stopped shipping products, or PC components, starting in early May because we couldn't pay them," he said. "But NAOC is taking over PC Club and helping us overcome our financial problems. I think they see value in the fact that we've been in business for 16 years."

Founded in 1992, PC Club is a computer parts store and repair center, offering upgrade kits, LCD monitors and other computer parts and services.

The company has 1.6 million customers nationwide including 50,000 in Utah. Of the 50,000, about 6,000 are online customers and the remainder are store customers in Utah.

"Brick-and-mortar accessory computer stores are still a valued commodity in the U.S.," said NAOC spokesperson Alan Hunter. "We know PC Club with its long history, quality technical service and computer accessory assortment will continue to have strong potential for continued business operations. A technology retail outlet is the next logical addition to our portfolio."

"Our new relationship with NAOC Holdings will give us an opportunity to grow our market share and expand beyond the western and central U.S.," said Kim Chu, senior sales manager at PC Club. "In addition, we'll now have the ability to reorganize and to work on expanding our product line."

On Wednesday, South Jordan-based rival PC Laptops offered free lifetime labor and service support to PC Club's customers -- a strategy it uses to quickly ramp up its customer base. David Politis, PC Laptops's spokesman, on Friday said the company will continue to offer those free services to PC Club customers.