Chief Judge Arthur Gonzalez approved a number of Borders’ initial motions at the end of the day on Wednesday, including one that allows the bookseller to access $400 million of their $505 million in debtor-in-possession financing to fund operations. Borders’ attorney David Friedman “said Borders needs the $400 million on an interim basis to cover immediate expenses if it’s to keep operating and reorganize”–which makes you wonder how they are going to fund anything more than bare subsistence. A number of attorneys for creditors objected to portions of the loan agreement–particularly distressed that Borders had not submitted a detailed budget […]
Finance
Borders: What Publishers Are Saying, and Whether Business Resumes
So far only the largest publisher, Penguin Group, has commented on the record on Borders’ bankrupty filing. They said in part, “Penguin hopes that Borders will emerge from this process as a smaller but stronger book retailer, and will work closely with Borders management to support this transition. Penguin has been following developments at Borders very closely for many months and has taken appropriate steps to mitigate the financial impact of the company’s bankruptcy on Penguin.” Simon & Schuster’s parent company CBS reported fourth quarter (and full-year) earnings after the close of the market today. As we report separately, they […]
So Many Filings, So Much Debt
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 […]
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 […]
Fourth Quarter Borders Sales Fell 19 Percent; Store Closing List Leaked; eBook Are Safe
In one of the filings related to their bankruptcy today, Borders provided a snapshot report on full-year sales, even though they have not formally reported those results yet. Sales for the fiscal year ending January 29, 2011 were “approximately $2.3 billion”–from which we deduce sales for the year fell roughly 14.5 percent compared a year ago, when they recorded sales of just under $2.7 billion. An estimate of fourth quarter results based on the three other quarters already disclosed shows that a bad situation got worse during the best sales time of the year. Fourth quarter sales were roughly $761 […]
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, […]