A battle is brewing in advance of the Thursday afternoon court hearing on Barnes & Noble’s $13.9 million bid to acquire most of Borders’ intellectual property, including their extensive customer databases. This dispute focuses on recommendations of consumer privacy ombudsman Michael St. Patrick Baxter, at Covington & Burling. Not only does BN say “implementing all of the recommendations contained in the report would destroy the value of the transaction from Barnes & Noble’s perspective,” but they accuse Borders of withholding those recommendations (as well as correspondence from the FTC and state Attorneys General) in advance of the auction. They write […]
Borders
Bookselling: Nebraska Book Has Trouble with Financing; Two Madison Bookstores Merge; BAMM Opens One, Closes Another; and More
In a Monday bankruptcy court filing, Nebraska Book Company said they have not been to secure their planned exit financing of $250 million yet. A hearing to confirm their reorganization plan scheduled for October 4 has been moved to October 27. The company said lenders were citing “various macroeconomic indicators, including a tightening of capital markets, as possible concerns with the debtors’ procuring the exit financing at this time.” Borders reported another $65.9 million in operating losses on sales of just $13.7 million for the month of August. (“Other revenue”, however, was $126.8 million, nearly double the $57.6 million from […]
Bookselling: Stores Close in Westhampton, Downtown LA; OFT Sets Amazon/Book Depository Ruling Date; and More
The Open Book in Westhampton Beach will close by the end of the year. Owner Terry Lucas told the Southampton Press that “the difficult economy, the rise of the popularity of e-books and the arrival of another bookstore down the block” — meaning the Westhampton outpost of Books & Books, which opened in 2010 — combined to influence her decision. “We have tried everything to stay open, but it is not financially feasible to keep going…. I’m trying to focus on the good. I met so many amazing people and had so much fun.” Southhampton Press Metropolis Books will close […]
Borders Auctions IP Off to Multiple Bidders, Including Barnes & Noble and Berjaya Books
Borders held an auction for its intellectual property Wednesday and Hilco Streambank, which conducted the proceedings and fielded offers from ten bidders, announced they had sold various assets for nearly $15.8 million. Hilco Streambank was vague on exactly who bought what asset, initially naming only Barnes & Noble and Berjaya Books among the “multiple bidders” who each acquired pieces of Borders’ IP, including a global portfolio of trademarks, the Borders, Waldenbooks and Brentano’s trade names, various domain names, and the Borders.com website. Barnes & Noble paid approximately $13.9 million, but no one has specified yet what they bought.Berjaya Books owns […]
Borders: Chief Account Officer Terminated, Next Jump Countersues
VP and chief accounting officer Glen Tomaszewski was terminated from his position on September 2, according to an SEC filing last week. The legal battle between Borders and marketing firm Next Jump is not over yet, despite last week’s agreement that Next Jump would take down a website that redirected Borders Rewards customers to its own rewards site, OO.com. Next Jump countered with a suit of its own, Reuters reports, saying Borders allowed Next Jump to transfer customer accounts to OO.com, but then accused the marketing firm of stealing the accounts as a pretext for recovering damages, in essence “duping” […]
Borders Asks For Six-Figure Executive Severance as Next Jump Agrees To Take Down Rewards Site
As Borders winds down business this week, it is contending with final bits of business in federal bankruptcy court. Late last week the company sought permission to pay $125,000 each in severance to former ceo Mike Edwards, former cfo Scott Henry, current evp of store operations (and acting cfo) Jim Frering and head of human resources Rosalind Thompson. Ten other executives already qualify for $125,000 severance payments, according to the filing. Both Edwards and Henry were “voluntarily terminated” on July 29 but Borders said in its motion that the two “continue to work actively on a non-compensated basis to assure […]