The Borders Group Inc. announced last week it would liquidate after a last-ditch effort at finding a buyer proved unsuccessful.
Borders, which was the second-largest book retailer in the nation behind Barnes and Noble Inc., had set Sunday, July 17 as the deadline for any potential deals. According to reports, a $215.1 million bid by Najafi Cos. was rejected by a committee of Borders”™ biggest unsecured creditors.
With 399 stores and some 10,700 employees nationally, including stores in Mount Kisco and Middletown, liquidation of some stores and facilities was expected to begin as early as last Friday. The process is expected to conclude by September. The liquidation will be handled by the private equity firms Hilco and the Gordon Brothers Group.
The Mount Kisco and Middletown locations, at 22,586 square feet and 19,121 square feet, respectively, remained open after the company was forced to close a number of its locations this past spring after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February.
At the time of its bankruptcy filing, Borders owed $272 million to its 30 largest unsecured creditors, including Penguin Group USA, Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster, Random House, HarperCollins and Macmillan.
Borders Group President Mike Edwards attributed the chain”™s decline to the changing nature of the book industry as it moves toward e-books.
“Following the best efforts of all parties, we are saddened by this development,” Edwards said in a release. “We were all working hard towards 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.”
Reader”™s Digest reportedly for sale
The Reader”™s Digest Association Inc. has reportedly put itself up for sale and is seeking bids of at least $1 billion, according to a July 18 report by the Wall Street Journal that cited sources familiar with the situation.
The 90-year-old publishing giant and marketing company, which publishes more than 90 magazines, is said to be looking to sell the company either as a whole or in parts.
The company neither denied nor confirmed the reports.
“If or when there is something, there”™ll certainly be more to say,” said spokesman Evan Goetz. “The company is not commenting on news reports.”
New reports surfaced last Wednesday that suggest the company has hired investment bankers Evercore Partners and Morgan Stanley to shop it to potential buyers, according to the New York Post.
Formerly based in Chappaqua, Reader”™s Digest is headquartered in New York City and has 143,000 square feet of office and storage space in White Plains. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2009 after being taken private for $2.8 billion in 2007 by private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings L.L.C.
