Giveaways
Erin L. Schneider
Goodreads Giveaway: SUMMER OF SLOANE
Goodreads Giveaway: SUMMER OF SLOANE

Book Stores

It's Official: Borders Files For Bankruptcy

Wednesday, 2.16: As a follow-up to my post on Monday - According to Publisher's Marketplace (and many other locations on the web), Borders has indeed, filed for bankruptcy. Here's PM's released story from this morning:

Borders Files for Bankruptcy; Owes Top Publishers $230 Million, and Will Close About 200 Stores

Borders formally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Manhattan Federal Court, listing total debt of $1.29 billion and supposed assets of $1.275 billion. Among the top 30 unsecured creditors listed in the filing, book publishers and distributed are owed roughly $230 million (see below for the full list).

Borders says in their announcement that it "has received commitments for $505 million in Debtor-in-Possession (DIP) financing led by GE Capital, Restructuring Finance. Restructuring Finance. This financing should enable Borders to meet its obligations going forward so that our stores continue to be competitive for customers in terms of goods, services and the shopping experience."

For customers, they expect to honor Borders Rewards program, gift cards and other customer programs and they expect "to make employee payroll and continue its benefits programs for its employees."

The company says they had 642 stores open as of January 29. In their press release, they say they expect to close "approximately 30 percent" of those stores, or roughly 200 locations, "in the next several weeks."

When Will Borders File For Bankruptcy?

Monday, 2.14: Posted on Publisher's Lunch today, the discussion is no longer will Border's file for bankruptcy, but instead, when will they?
According to the Wall Street Journal, that may happen sooner than later - and in my honest opinion, this is a sad day...not that it wasn't to be expected, with the surge in sales of e-books. 
As we move forward with all things technology and electronic, will bookstores go by way of the newspaper and become obsolete? Most likely, yes. What are your thoughts?
See below excerpt for more information.


When Will Borders File For Bankruptcy? As Early As Today, Or Later This Week, Reports Say

The WSJ reported Friday afternoon that Borders "could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as Monday or Tuesday," but also cautioned "the filing http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/behttp://www.publishersmarketplace.com/delayed a few days." Whenever the bankruptcy filing takes place, it will trigger the imminent liquidation and closure of a significant portion of their store base--now predicted to cover 200 of the company's stores (with an option to close 50 more), among other restructuring efforts. That would leave a base of roughly 400 to 450 stores remaining. If it comes before the end of this month, vendors who received checks at the end of November may have to fight to keep those funds by arguing that they were "incurred in the ordinary course of business." And anyone who was paid in December will likely have to return those funds, since Bankruptcy Code indicates that "the debtor is presumed to have been insolvent on and during the 90 days immediately preceding the date of the filing of the petition."