[url]http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/14288635p-15112013c.html[/url

In a major new crisis for Tower Records, the West Sacramento-based music retailer has been cut off from product shipments by at least three major record companies, sources said Friday.

The move suggested that Tower's long-festering financial problems may be coming to a head. Retail consultants and others said Tower's 89 stores might not be able to last more than a few weeks without new product.

Industry sources, who asked to remain anonymous because they said they weren't authorized to speak for the companies, said Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and EMI Group had halted shipments to Tower this week. The Los Angeles Times, which first reported on the matter Friday, said Sony BMG Music Entertainment also stopped deliveries.

Officials with the four companies declined to comment publicly or couldn't be reached for comment. Combined, the four companies are responsible for the vast majority of what's sold at Tower or any other music retailer.

The cutoff came a week after Tower hired a new chief executive, turnaround management consultant Joseph L. D'Amico, to sell the venerable retailer, which has been up for sale for several months.

Tower, which was in bankruptcy reorganization in 2004, has been for sale on and off since 2001 and is 85 percent owned by a group of bondholders who took charge after Tower emerged from bankruptcy two years ago.

D'Amico -- the company's third CEO since 2002 -- and other Tower officials didn't return calls seeking comment. Representatives of the bondholders who control Tower couldn't be reached or had no information about the situation. Officials with Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, the Los Angeles investment bank hired to sell Tower, couldn't be reached.

One source familiar with the situation said Tower had been close to a buyout a few weeks ago. "In the end, the deal fell apart," the source said.

George Whalin, an independent retailing consultant from San Marcos, said Tower would need to resolve the situation in the next 60 days or so. Otherwise, "they won't get any of the new releases," he said. "The thing that feeds those stores is having the new releases."

As the product supply dries up, the company could face liquidation, he said. Tower employs several hundred workers at its West Sacramento headquarters.

The timing by the record companies was particularly ominous because industry officials, gathering this weekend at their annual convention in Florida, are making plans for the holiday shopping season.

"This is when the buying starts occurring for the holiday season," said Barry Sosnick, a retail consultant from New York.

One source who works closely with record companies said the industry had allowed Tower to buy music for quite some time on terms that were "extremely lenient