What is the loss of Borders going to mean for the publishing industry? There are a number of prognoses, ranging from “probably not much” to “gloom, doom, and dogs and cats living together”. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, but it’s interesting to look at all the predictions. Former Borders UK chief Philip Downer wrote a piece that could be considered a “downer” in another sense for the publishing industry, pointing out that the Wall Street Journal expected the sale of print books to decline further in 2011, to a total loss of 21% since...

Alabama-based Books-A-Million has put in a bid to buy at least 30 Borders stores, reports the International Business Times, although it's possible that number could jump as high as 35. The offer is for 21 Borders superstores and 9 smaller stores, and around half of the locations are in the northeast, where Books-A-Million wants to expand (7 are located in Pennsylvania alone). If the bid is accepted, BAM would take over the inventory and merchandise and renegotiate the leases. The article also notes that "as many as 1,000 to 1,500 jobs" could be saved. Books-A-Million is not without its own troubles....

While some of the more cursory summaries in the press are framing Borders as a victim of the ebook revolution, anyone who's followed the story knows that the company was being publicly embarrassed by its financial woes not five months after the first Kindle was released--hardly enough time for Amazon to strike an ebook death blow. Edward Nawotka in Publishing Perspectives traces the problems back all the way to 2001, when a lethal dose of grocery store DNA was injected into Borders' upper management tier--who then handed the company's online sales over to Amazon. Add to that some labor problems...

As people have had a day or so for the initial shock to wear off, the elegies and post-mortems for Borders have begun. For starters, my friend Eric Burns of Websnark has a thoughtful piece looking at his own reactions to the news, and considering why it might have happened. Burns seems to feel bad mainly because the Borders café was the only place he could get a sugar-free raspberry latte. Actually, he says that it’s “one of the many things” he used to look forward to when shopping at Borders, but as he points out later in the piece, the...

Kobo has apparently been seeing a good deal of misunderstanding going around about its relationship to the embattled Borders chain. The company issued a statement today intended to clear up those misconceptions, pointing out that it is a separate company in no danger of closing. Though Borders owns a 11% minority stake in the company, it does not depend on Borders for its content but has its own separate agreements with publishers. The statement also points out that existing Borders customers are being transitioned over to have Kobo accounts that include all the e-books they originally purchased from Borders....

The New York Times reports that Borders has called off tomorrow's auction and will move forward with submitting the liquidation plan it has worked out with Hilco and the Gordon Brothers Group. If the federal judge approves the plan on Thursday as expected, the company will start closing stores this Friday, and continue liquidation through September. Borders has 399 stores still open, and employees 10,700 people. The Times also points out that Borders' death may have ripple effects in the publishing industry: Publishers said with Borders gone, they would plan for smaller print runs and shipments. Employees at major publishing houses worried...

Get ready for more bad news articles about Borders this week. Sunday's deadline passed with no new bidders willing to take over operations for the remaining stores, and the only bidder so far for tomorrow's scheduled auction is a liquidation group. The Wall Street Journal says going out of business sales may begin at some stores as early as this Friday. The only good news is that there's still a chance parts of Borders might be salvaged, if a company like Books-A-Million steps in to acquire some of the stores. The WSJ says Borders is currently in last-ditch-effort talks...

Jahm Najafi, whose private equity firm Najafi Companies had made a bid for Borders earlier this month, has withdrawn his offer, reports the Wall Street Journal. With Najafi out of the picture, time has almost run out for the bookseller; it has until Sunday to find a new bidder, and failing that it will go up for auction next Tuesday, where a group of liquidators who are willing to pay more than Najafi are expected to be the opening bidders. The problem with Najafi's offer was that it was too low to appease landlords and creditors, who were afraid that he...

CNet reports that the Borders iOS app has removed its e-bookstore browsing feature, in line with the dictates of Apple’s new policy on in-app purchases. However, unlike some of the apps I mentioned in my last post on this issue, Borders doesn’t tell people to go to Borders.com to buy e-books—it tells them to start using the Kobo app instead. The Kobo app still features an e-bookstore link a built-in e-bookstore, though undoubtedly its days are numbered given Apple’s moves to bring all content-based apps into compliance with its guidelines. Last month, we reported that Borders was shifting all...

I'm writing this today from the coffee shop at a Borders, one of the superstore locations in the middle of the U.S. to survive the company's recent bankruptcy and ensuing real estate culling. I was the first person in the store this morning, and in the past half hour nobody else has come in, which seems too bad: here are thousands upon thousands of books, comics, and magazines, and nobody to browse them. John C. Malone, who wants to buy 70% of Barnes & Noble, told the New York Times earlier this week why he thinks bookstores still matter (emphasis mine): "We...

While Amazon was buying up The Book Depository, Pearson Australia, the parent company of Penguin Books, was busy negotiating with REDgroup to buy Australia's Borders and Angus & Robertson websites. Other booksellers are now calling for an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to ensure that the deal won't give Penguin an unfair competitive advantage in the tightly controlled Australian market. From The Canberra Times: The acquisition, which has been in the works for just three weeks and is due to take effect on July 28, indirectly places one of the nation’s largest book publishers in competition with its...

The WSJ is reporting that Borders has announced an initial bidder for its bankruptcy court auction: Direct Brands, a music/DVD/book distributor owned by private-equity firm Najafi Companies, that operates the Book of the Month Club. Direct Brands bid $215.1 million for the beleaguered book chain, and in addition will assume about $220 million in liabilities. The newspaper article is behind a paywall, but MobyLives has reprinted this quote from it concerning further store closings: ...the retailer would operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Direct Brands, the companies said. Direct Brands didn’t indicate how many Borders stores it would keep open or...