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Borders bankruptcy could come next week: report

A customer is seen through the window of a Borders book store in New York, March 16, 2010. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

A customer is seen through the window of a Borders book store in New York, March 16, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid

NEW YORK | Fri Feb 11, 2011 10:16pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bookseller Borders Group Inc BGP.N could file for bankruptcy as soon as Monday or Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The company is in the final stages of preparing a bankruptcy filing after failing to persuade publishers and other to go along with a plan to restructure its debt, the paper reported.

Borders could close 200 of its 674 stores, according to the Journal.

"There have been constant inquiries by reporters and stories written regarding whether Borders is considering a Chapter 11 filing. Borders is not prepared at this time to report on the course of action that it will pursue," said Mary Davis, a spokeswoman for Borders.

Borders on January 27 said that it had received a conditional refinancing commitment from its banker GE Capital for a $550 million senior secured facility. But that agreement was contingent on publishers and other creditors agreeing to provide financing to the company among other things.

Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Borders has been trying for years to cut costs by closing many Waldenbook stores and decreasing employees as it has been squeezed by competition and left out of a customer move to digital books.

Its finances have continued to suffer and it had an operating loss of $74.4 million in the third-quarter, nearly twice as large as a year earlier.
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Comments (2)
Tamooj wrote:
Sad, since I love going to their bookstores, but probably inevitable since simply opening a Starbucks counter is not enough to make customers want to visit you location. It sure would be nice if all the old brick-and-paper bookstores would figure out how to become much more digitally savvy without stupid closed proprietary schemes like Kindle, etc.

Feb 12, 2011 3:03pm EST  --  Report as abuse
echobravotango wrote:
Sad? Tamooj what are you sad about? They are one of the ones that killed all the real indie bookstores in America that offered real choice to readers and carried books by authors who weren’t on the artificially vaunted BS list! I don’t normally use the S* word so I won’t start now, but if they thought bringing that swill into their den of stupidity was going to save them they have their answer. What you may ask gives rise to such vehement vitriol? I’m glad I asked. My brother worked in a borderlands in Seattle, Washington when he lived in the US. He told me the management once hauled him into their offices to reprimand him for ushering befouled mentally disturbed man out of the store after several patrons complained. They explained that a record was made of the complaint and it would be placed in his file!!
Needless to say,but I shall- this is a sample of the soup who ran this Corp. into the ground. You say boo-hoo Tamooj I say good riddance. Let real capitalism work with out the Nanny-state intervening to save the favored few. As the saying goes Think or swim.

Feb 12, 2011 4:47pm EST  --  Report as abuse
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