The bad week for Barnes & Noble’s stock continued yesterday, with another drop of almost 4 percent on heavy volume, to close below $10 a share for the first time. The continuing fall was sufficient to finally attract the notice of the WSJ’s Heard on the Street column. They’d still like to see BN close more stores, and blame Len Riggio at least in part for taking more cash in the 2009 merger of BN College than the entire combined company is worth in today’s market. (The company has a current market cap of approximately $550 million.) The stock opened […]
Bookstores
REDGroup Cuts HQ Jobs, May Close More Stores; Borders Lease Rejections; and More
REDGroup Retail has laid off 26 staffers at its Melbourne headquarters as part of its bankruptcy proceedings. Administrators Ferrier Hodgson said in a statement that the company could not rule out additional layoffs and store closings in the coming weeks, on top of the 38 Borders and Angus & Robertson stores already closed and 321 layoffs. Earlier this week Australian bankruptcy court granted Ferrier Hodgson’s request for more time to consider its options and come up with a restructuring plan. The administrators now have until September 18. A court hearing on the same matter is pending in New Zealand, which […]
Borders Gets Extra Time to Renegotiate Leases
In Tuesday morning’s Omnibus hearing, Manhattan bankruptcy court judge Martin Glenn granted the bulk of Borders’ motions, including an extension of the deadline to renegotiate existing leases by an additional 90 days to September 14. The court also gave final approval on the $505 million credit facility pending several changes are made, including a provision giving the unsecured creditors committee $125,000, up from $50,000, to fund investigations of claims of secured lenders. Judge Glenn empathized with part of the creditors’ objection, noting that “when I look at the incremental cost of new money coming in, it’s pretty steep,” but he […]
Borders Wants Normal Trade Terms–and Isn’t Getting Them
In a conference call with vendors on Friday, Borders executives reiterated the Pollyannish view that they have held since their “not a liquidity crisis” days, asking major suppliers to treat them like a normal business even though they are not. The company confirmed what’s been part of the plan since their bankruptcy filing: “the decision will be made early next week” (now this week) on how many additional stores to close. They are allowed a maximum of 75 additional store liquidations (though a Borders spokeswoman indicated that number is closer to 20 to 25 stores at the moment) and are […]
Briefs: ‘Heaven Is For Real’ A Sleeper Hit; Whitcoulls For Sale; Continuing Fenn Fallout; And More
Heaven Is For Real, recounting evangelical pastor Todd Burpo‘s the-four year old son Colton’s otherworldly experience while undergoing surgery for a burst appendix, has proven to be a sleeper paperback hit for Thomas Nelson. The publisher tells the NYT the book (co-written with Sarah Palin ghostwriter Lynn Vincent) had “broken company sales records”, going back to press 22 times on an initial print run of 40,000 copies since the book’s November release. There are now more than 1.5 million copies in print (and “hundreds of thousands of copies” sold) with strong sales in both Barnes & Noble and Christian specialty markets. […]
Borders Creditors Say Financing Favors Lenders Too Much–And Warn Bookseller Needs A Real Plan By June
The committee of unsecured Borders creditors filed an objection in bankruptcy court Thursday afternoon over the terms of Borders’ debtor-in-possession financing, which they view to be “unreasonable, overreaching and otherwise inappropriate.” The main contention is that Borders borrowed more money than they actually need, creating oversized fees in the millions of dollars for lenders, which only reduces the available funds to pay back creditors. The filing argues that the lenders used their leverage “to impose the objectionable provisions” which Borders was “forced to agree to,” knowing that the bookseller “was on the brink of collapse” before filing for Chapter 11.” […]