Borders Poised for a Breakup?

L.J. Sellers · 05-16-2011, 09:39 AM

Borders has offers for various parts of the store, making it likely it'll break up. One offer would keep a large chunk of the profitable stores together and operating as "Borders." There's no mention of what happens to the Kobo e-reader.

http://tinyurl.com/63c6q98
http://tinyurl.com/3fhx5wu

Worldwalker · 05-16-2011, 10:20 AM

What are the real URL's?

RainingLemur · 05-16-2011, 10:26 AM

First url is to bloomberg article, second to a wall street journal writeup.

rogue_librarian · 05-16-2011, 10:31 AM

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...ookseller.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...015584476.html

Kali Yuga · 05-16-2011, 11:03 AM

Yeah, this is only "news" for people who haven't paid attention to Borders' big flame-out.

Borders does not own Kobo, so while they are probably not happy, they should be able to continue.

The Bloomberg article is rather inaccurate in one respect, namely that ebooks had very little to do with Borders' demise. They expanded unwisely, took far too long to develop their own website (they made a deal with Amazon to have them run their site), had a cash crunch at the worst possible time, had to secure very expensive credit during the financial crisis, and the incompetent and/or rotating management was unable to dig them out of an increasingly bigger hole.

They were making a huge mistake by outsourcing their ebooks, although in the short term it was their only option. However, working with Kobo was far less costly than rolling their own, thus it was unlikely to be a major factor in their demise -- especially since ebooks weren't even on the radar when they started to slide back in 2007.

Kind of a surprising error, from a business magazine....

fjtorres · 05-16-2011, 07:24 PM

No real shock.
Borders as currently constituted is not a viable entity and their likely fate has always been chapter 7 liquidation.
That B&N might be interested in only 10 Borders is also expected, as 75% of their sites are double-served, but I am rather curious as to who might want the other 190 sites in demand.
And what for.
It might be that the buyer wants the stores for something other than books.

Hellmark · 05-17-2011, 02:16 PM

Why does everyone think that Borders owns Kobo? Yes, they were one of the first ones to start selling the Kobo reader, but that was because Borders already had a relationship with Kobo, since they already had the contract for running Borders' ebook site. That would be like saying Books A Million owns Barnes & Noble and the nook, since BAM subcontracts B&N for their ebook site.

DJHARKAVY · 05-17-2011, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hellmark

Why does everyone think that Borders owns Kobo? Yes, they were one of the first ones to start selling the Kobo reader, but that was because Borders already had a relationship with Kobo, since they already had the contract for running Borders' ebook site. That would be like saying Books A Million owns Barnes & Noble and the nook, since BAM subcontracts B&N for their ebook site.

Didn't Kobo use the borders site (or vice versa) for ebook sales initially?

typhoon5ht · 05-17-2011, 03:34 PM

It's kind of sad to see all these closed Borders around me. A lot of Barnes and Nobles are closed too. boo...

Hellmark · 05-18-2011, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJHARKAVY

Didn't Kobo use the borders site (or vice versa) for ebook sales initially?

Kobo has always done their own thing. Borders NEVER has sold ebooks on their own. At first they subcontracted with Sony, and used the Sony software to sell ebooks. After the contract expired, they then subcontracted ebook sales out to Kobo, and Kobo has run their ebook sales since. It's only been about a year and a half ago that they switched from Sony (if I remember right, was at the end of 2009, about when Sony switched from LRF to ePub).

05-16-2011, 09:39 AM	#1
L.J. Sellers Novelist Posts: 287 Karma: 387979 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Eugene, Oregon Device: Kindle	Borders Poised for a Breakup? Borders has offers for various parts of the store, making it likely it'll break up. One offer would keep a large chunk of the profitable stores together and operating as "Borders." There's no mention of what happens to the Kobo e-reader. http://tinyurl.com/63c6q98 http://tinyurl.com/3fhx5wu

05-17-2011, 03:34 PM	#9
typhoon5ht Member Posts: 14 Karma: 20000 Join Date: May 2011 Device: Kindle	It's kind of sad to see all these closed Borders around me. A lot of Barnes and Nobles are closed too. boo... Last edited by dreams; 05-20-2011 at 05:01 PM. Reason: edit self-promotion

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05-16-2011, 10:20 AM	#2
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	What are the real URL's?

05-16-2011, 10:26 AM	#3
RainingLemur Spork Connoisseur Posts: 2,355 Karma: 16780603 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: Nook Color	First url is to bloomberg article, second to a wall street journal writeup.

05-16-2011, 10:31 AM	#4
rogue_librarian Guru Posts: 973 Karma: 4269175 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Europe Device: Pocketbook Basic 613	http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...ookseller.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...015584476.html

05-16-2011, 11:03 AM	#5
Kali Yuga Professional Contrarian Posts: 2,045 Karma: 3289631 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Kindle 4 No Touchie	Yeah, this is only "news" for people who haven't paid attention to Borders' big flame-out. Borders does not own Kobo, so while they are probably not happy, they should be able to continue. The Bloomberg article is rather inaccurate in one respect, namely that ebooks had very little to do with Borders' demise. They expanded unwisely, took far too long to develop their own website (they made a deal with Amazon to have them run their site), had a cash crunch at the worst possible time, had to secure very expensive credit during the financial crisis, and the incompetent and/or rotating management was unable to dig them out of an increasingly bigger hole. They were making a huge mistake by outsourcing their ebooks, although in the short term it was their only option. However, working with Kobo was far less costly than rolling their own, thus it was unlikely to be a major factor in their demise -- especially since ebooks weren't even on the radar when they started to slide back in 2007. Kind of a surprising error, from a business magazine....

05-16-2011, 07:24 PM	#6
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	No real shock. Borders as currently constituted is not a viable entity and their likely fate has always been chapter 7 liquidation. That B&N might be interested in only 10 Borders is also expected, as 75% of their sites are double-served, but I am rather curious as to who might want the other 190 sites in demand. And what for. It might be that the buyer wants the stores for something other than books.

05-17-2011, 02:16 PM	#7
Hellmark Wizard Posts: 2,592 Karma: 4290425 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Foristell, Missouri, USA Device: Nokia N800, PRS-505, Nook STR Glowlight, Kindle 3, Kobo Libra 2	Why does everyone think that Borders owns Kobo? Yes, they were one of the first ones to start selling the Kobo reader, but that was because Borders already had a relationship with Kobo, since they already had the contract for running Borders' ebook site. That would be like saying Books A Million owns Barnes & Noble and the nook, since BAM subcontracts B&N for their ebook site.