With expectations of possible Borders bankruptcy filing mounting, and corporate writedowns already beginning even without a filing as we noted on Friday with respect to Wiley, we’ve been looking at past bankruptcies to provide some sense of expectations, scope and scale. The closest US publishing-related bankruptcy comp in recent memory is probably the late 2006 collapse by AMS (Advanced Marketing Services). When they filed, the company owed the 40 largest publisher creditors alone $220 million, including $43.3 million to Random House. (The debtor list did also include publishers they distributed via PGW.) AMS also held $70 million worth of books […]
