associates were offered new positions as hourly "product specialists", while 3,900 salespeople were laid off, saving the company about $130 million per year. Many company insiders later revealed that they thought this was the most influential company decision that would ultimately lead to its demise. In 2004, with the expansion of the wireless phone market, Circuit City partnered with Verizon Wireless to include full-service Verizon Wireless sales and service centers in each Superstore. These locations were owned and staffed by Verizon Wireless. Circuit City stopped selling wireless phones with all other carriers due to the agreement. In April 2004, Circuit City announced its purchase of Canadian retailer InterTAN. Circuit City paid approximately US$284 million for InterTAN's 980 stores, which operated in Canada under the trade names RadioShack, Rogers Plus, and Battery Plus. Chairman and CEO Alan McCollough believed these existing small-format stores provided an easy entry into Canada, a country where Best Buy had been expanding. RadioShack sued InterTan in April 2004 over the branding use of RadioShack in Canada. Circuit City lost the lawsuit and all Canadian locations were renamed The Source by Circuit City in 2005. These stores were sold to Bell Canada and continue to operate. In 2007, a new store format was introduced as "The City" and designed to eliminate previously under-utilized space. The smaller format gave the company greater flexibility to enter new markets and backfill existing ones. Most new store openings in 2008 used this new store format. On February 8, 2007, Circuit City announced that it planned to close seven domestic Superstores and a Kentucky distribution center to cut costs and improve its financial performance. News reports also mention that 62 stores in Canada were to close. Circuit City announced on February 23, 2007, that its chief financial officer, Michael Foss, would leave the company. This unsettled investors and analysts concerned about management turnover. "This represents the third departure of a senior executive in the past six months, and the second departure of a top-five executive in the past month" said Goldman Sachs analyst Matthew Fassler in a client note. Chief Executive Officer Phil Schoonover's "hand-picked team is turning over faster than we would like to see in a turnaround situation." In 2007, the starting wage for new employees was dropped from $8.75 an hour down to $7.40 an hour ($6.55 being the federal minimum wage at the time). In a press release