Borders (US) liquidation to start Friday

[Doug Pardee]

It's all over for Borders (US). The Wall Street Journal reports that no "going concern" bids were placed before the Sunday deadline. Borders is headed to liquidation. Going-out-of-Business sales should start Friday, although it's possible that Friday will be used for advertising and preparation, with the actual sales starting on Saturday.

[Writecastlesinthesky]

So much for competition. B&N welcome to world domination!

[Doug Pardee]

It's official. From PR Newswire:

Borders Group reported today that, in accordance with the terms of its financing agreement, the Company will submit to the Court for approval the previously-announced proposal from Hilco and Gordon Brothers to purchase the store assets of the business and administer the liquidation process. ...

Borders currently operates 399 stores and employs approximately 10,700 employees. Subject to the Court's approval, under the proposal, liquidation is expected to commence for some stores and facilities as soon as Friday, July 22, with a phased rollout of the program which is expected to conclude by the end of September.

[Doug Pardee]

The bankruptcy court has approved the general liquidation of Borders, with Going-out-of-Business sales starting tomorrow (Friday). However, Books-A-Million wants to pick up 30-35 of those stores, and from what I can tell, the court has agreed to postpone the GooB sales at those stores until a hearing on Monday.

The stores of interest to Books-A-Million are (this is from Sarah Weinman's Twitter feed, @Sarahw, and typos are almost guaranteed because she was typing in real-time):

• 89 (Columbia MD)
• 125 (Bangor ME)
• 133 (South Portland ME)
• 136 (Dayton OH) [I think this one's listed as Canton, not Dayton]
• 138 (Eau Claire WI)
• 177 (York PA)
• 185 (Mondrey sans City CA) [This one's listed as Sand City, near Monterrey]
• 186 (San Antonio, TX)
• 188 (Salem OR)
• 193 (Atlantic City NJ) [This one's listed as Mays Landing, near Atlantic City]
• 218 (Waldorf MD)
• 225 (San Diego CA)
• 262 (Woodbridge VA)
• 287 (Eugene OR)
• 340 (Concord NH)
• 369 (Rapid City SD)
• 372 (Hagerstown MD)
• 394 (West Lebanon NH)
• 436 (Gresham OR)
• 442 (Scranton PA)
• 524 (Waterford CT)
• 694 (Pennsdale PA)

Small format stores:

• 649 (Monaca PA)
• 806 (Hanover PA)
• 842 (Susquennaha Valley Mall, PA)
• 844 (Clearview Mall, Butler PA)
• 858 (Dover, DE)
• 927 (Southern Pines NC)
• 949 (Exton PA) [I believe this is store 939, Exton]
• 954 (Shops at Charleston Place, Charleston SC)

The following stores are "maybes":

• 434 (San Veste, OH) [Sundusky, I think]
• 625 (Dubuque IA)
• 370 (Barbersville WV) [Barboursville, I think]
• 742 (St. Clairsville, OH)
• 931 (Monroe, MI)

[Doug Pardee]

The last hope for employees of 30 Borders stores has been crushed. Books-A-Million announced that they were unable to come to terms with "all of the parties whose consent was necessary" for those stores, and so the offer to pick up those locations has been withdrawn. It's not clear to me if the options on the other 5 stores (listed as "maybes" above) are still being pursued or not. The 30 were an all-or-nothing, and ended up being nothing.

Also still up-in-the-air are what will happen with the Borders name, with the Borders.com Web site, and with Borders' 11% share of Kobo.

[Doug Pardee]

According to Publishers Weekly, Borders says that all of their small-format stores are now vacated. An auction will be held for the leases on those stores August 31.

An auction will be held for the leases on the superstores on September 13. I presume that means that the clearance sales will be over by then. A few individual stores are already in play, and might not be involved in the September 13 auction.

The following day, September 14, an auction will be held for the last remaining bits of Borders: the name, the borders.com web site, the 11% share of Kobo that Borders holds, and any other intellectual property.