Borders
Borders Group, Inc. (former NYSE ticker
symbol BGP) was an international book and music
retailer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The company
employed approximately 19,500 throughout the U.S.,
primarily in its Borders and Waldenbooks stores.
As of January 30, 2010, the company operated 511
Borders superstores in the world, including 508
in the U.S. and three in Puerto Rico. The company
also operated 175 stores in the Waldenbooks Specialty
Retail segment, including Waldenbooks, Borders Express,
Borders airport stores, and Borders Outlet stores.
Borders Group formerly operated stores in Australia,
New Zealand and Singapore. However, these were sold
off to Pacific Equity Partners (which owned rival
Angus & Robertson) in 2008, then were later
sold again to RedGroup Retail. The stores continued
to operate under the Borders brand as the unaffiliated
"Borders Asia Pacific" until RedGroup
was placed into voluntary administration in February
2011; with the five New Zealand stores sold to the
James Pascoe Group, and the Australian stores gradually
shut down, with the last group to close by July
17.
On February 16, 2011, Borders applied for Chapter
11 bankruptcy protection and began liquidating 226
of its stores in the United States. Despite an offer
from the private-equity firm Najafi Companies, Borders
was not able to find a buyer before its July 17
bidding deadline, and therefore began liquidating
its remaining 399 retail outlets on July 22, with
the last remaining stores closing their doors on
Sunday, September 18, 2011. The Chapter 11 case
was ultimately converted to Chapter 7. As of October
14, 2011, the Borders.com website has been replaced
by a redirection link to the Barnes & Noble
website, effectively shutting down Borders.com entirely.
(Source: Wikipedia.org)
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