No Storybook Ending for Borders Group
"Following the best efforts of all parties, we are saddened by this development," Edwards said in the press release. "We were all working hard toward a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, eReader revolution, and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now."
On July 21, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Martin Glenn approved the liquidation proposal, according to a Wall Street Journal article. According to the article, Books-A-Million Inc. submitted a bid for the leases and inventory of 30 to 35 Borders locations. The deal would mean that those locations would not be liquidated, and instead would continue on as Books-A-Million bookstores. The transaction would save at least 1,000 jobs out of 10,700. However, according to a July 26 Associated Press article, the deal was unsuccessful.
According to the Washington Business Journal, Books-A-Million's "'efforts to secure the inventory, fixtures, equipment and leasehold interests for 30 Borders stores has ended unsuccessfully because the parties could not agree on terms and the going out of business sales at these locations commenced,' Clyde Anderson, Books-A-Million CEO, said. 'We worked exhaustively in an effort to acquire these stores and reach agreements with all of the parties whose consent was necessary. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful.'"
