Borders to Close its Doors for Good by September
By Rob Scott
July 19, 2011
July 19, 2011
- Following failed attempts to draw investor interest in a bankruptcy court auction, Borders Group Inc. has announced it will liquidate its remaining assets.
- The second-largest U.S. bookstore chain says it will start liquidating its remaining 399 stores as soon as Friday, with the business to be shuttered for good by September. The company employs nearly 11,000 people.
- “We were all working hard toward a different outcome, but the head winds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, [electronic reader] revolution and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now,” explained Borders President Mike Edwards.
- Analysts have expressed concern that the demise of Borders may speed the decline in book sales and possibly make it more challenging for new writers to be discovered. Michael Norris, a senior analyst at Simba Information added, “Thousands of people whose job consisted of talking up and selling books will eventually being doing something else, and that’s bad for authors, agents, and everyone associated with the value chain in books.”
- ETCentric staffer Dennis Kuba commented: “Looks like Amazon has one more to go. I’ll miss browsing through the stacks.”