Borders has filled their bankruptcy web site with a raft of filings and we’ve been poring through them, as well as continuing to talk to publishers about next steps in their bankruptcy process. We’ve provided sub-header breakouts to make some of the detail easier for you to follow. The Good NewsThis morning we noted that the 30 largest unsecured vendor creditors are owed roughly $272 million. Additional documents indicate the bookseller owes vendors a total of just over $303 million. That means smaller, not listed vendors are owed a total of another $31 million–so collateral damage beyond the biggest publishers […]
Bookstores
What Does Borders’ Decline Do to Book Sales?
Everyone wants to know the impact of Borders reduction and potential disappearance on the market for printed books. The conventional wisdom, as one publisher told us, is that a third to half of Borders’ market share will be captured by other sellers, while the rest could simply disappear in lost sales. With Nielsen BookScan updating their weekly data earlier today, which they estimate covers 75 percent of physical retail sales, we thought it would be interesting to look at the last six weeks of sales–covering most of the period since Borders stopped paying vendors. Of course it’s hard to separate […]
Borders Files for Bankruptcy; Owes Top Publishers $230 Million, and Will Close About 200 Stores
Borders formally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Manhattan Federal Court, listing total debt of $1.29 billion and supposed assets of $1.275 billion. Among the top 30 unsecured creditors listed in the filing, book publishers and distributed are owed roughly $230 million (see below for the full list). Borders says in their announcement that it “has received commitments for $505 million in Debtor-in-Possession (DIP) financing led by GE Capital, Restructuring Finance. Restructuring Finance. This financing should enable Borders to meet its obligations going forward so that our stores continue to be competitive for customers in terms of goods, […]
Briefs: Quarto Annual Sales Rise; Hay House to Make Their Own Vooks; Planeta Acquires Bertrand; Gardners To Sell Direct to Consumers; and More
Quarto reported an 8 percent rise in adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to December to £7.4m from £6.9m, and a 7 percent jump in revenue to £113.8m from £106.6m. Its publishing division revenue increased 7 percent to £75.1m. Quarto cited “continued focus on developing markets, in particular Brazil and China, and improved trading in the UK and Australasia” for the revenue and profit gains. Release Hay House has become the first publisher to sign on to use Vook’s engine for creating enhanced ebooks at scale (called MotherVook). The product “converts disparate and varied file formats; combines text, video and […]
BN “Welcomes” Spurned Amazon Affiliates; Texas Governor Supports Amazon In Tax Battle
Barnes & Noble has issued an open letter (e.g. clever press release) to Amazon affiliates whose business may be affected by the online retailer’s tax issues with certain states. They want spurned affiliates “to know that you are welcome to join the Barnes & Noble affiliate family. If Amazon doesn’t want you, we do! And, we will take care of collecting and remitting all sales taxes due on BN.com sales to its customers so you and our customers don’t have to worry about being hassled or prosecuted by state tax auditors.” BN has nexus in all states because of its […]
When Will Borders File For Bankruptcy? As Early As Today, Or Later This Week
The WSJ reported Friday afternoon that Borders “could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as Monday or Tuesday,” but also cautioned “the filing could be delayed a few days.” Whenever the bankruptcy filing takes place, it will trigger the imminent liquidation and closure on a significant portion of their store base–now predicted to cover 200 of the company’s superstores (with an option to close 50 more) and all of its smaller mall-based outlets, among other restructuring efforts. If it comes before the end of this month, vendors who received checks at the end of November may have to […]