It's official: Egghead.com is back in the online sales game, this time owned by Amazon.com, which re-launched one of the Internet's oldest brand names as a new store operation powered by Amazon's e-commerce platform.

As first reported by InternetNews.com, the Egghead assets were acquired by Seattle-based Amazon early this month through the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California. The assets included the Egghead.com URL, intellectual property and all business documentation.

Menlo Park, Calif.-based Egghead suspended operations on Oct. 25 after a deal to sell its assets to Fry's Electronics collapsed. Egghead.com filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 15, 2001.

Amazon said the new Egghead.com site includes Amazon's familiar "store tabs" for Electronics, Computers, Software, Camera & Photo, Cell Phones & Service and Computer & Video Games.

Visitors to the new Egghead.com site have access to all Amazon.com stores and product categories, and benefit from Amazon.com's editorial and customer reviews, personalization and recommendation features, and 1-Click ordering functionality.

"We are thrilled to relaunch the Egghead.com site with all the power and benefits of the Amazon.com platform,'' said Steve Frazier, vice president for Amazon.com's Electronics, Tools and Kitchen segment.

Amazon.com said it will comply fully with the commitments in Egghead.com's privacy policy, and no Egghead.com customer data will be disclosed to Amazon.com without the consent of those customers.

The launch more or less closes the book on a retailing chapter that began when the company was founded as a chain of real-world Egghead Software stores in 1984.

In January 1998, citing declining revenues and continuing losses in the retail channel, Egghead said that it would shift its business focus to Internet commerce, change its name to Egghead.com Inc., and close its brick and mortar retail store network to become an Internet pure play. But the Internet recession ran roughshod over the online operation, and in the end, bankruptcy was the only option.