Borders Bookstores
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| Public | |
| Industry | Retail (Specialty) |
| Fate | Bankruptcy |
| Founded | 1971 |
| Defunct | 2011 |
| Headquarters | Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. |
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Key people
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| Products | Books, maps, CDs, DVDs, calendars, gift packs, magazines, board games, encyclopedias |
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Number of employees
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19,500 (2010) |
| Subsidiaries | Waldenbooks |
| Website | www |
Borders Group, Inc. (former ticker symbol BGP) was an international book and music retailer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In its final year, the company employed about 19,500 people throughout the U.S., primarily in its Borders and Waldenbooks stores.
At the beginning of 2010, the company operated 511 Borders superstores in the US. The company also operated 175 stores in the Waldenbooks Specialty Retail segment, including Waldenbooks, Borders Express, Borders airport stores, and Borders Outlet stores. By the end of December 2010, Borders employed more than an estimated 1150 across the UK stores which went into administration before the end of 2010. All stores were closed by December 31, 2010.
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 2011.
In February 2011, Borders applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and began liquidating 226 of its stores in the United States. Despite a purchase offer from the private-equity firm Najafi Companies, Borders was not able to find a buyer acceptable to its creditors before its July bidding deadline, so began liquidating its remaining 399 retail outlets, with the last remaining stores closing their doors in September. The Chapter 11 case was ultimately converted to Chapter 7. Rival bookseller Barnes & Noble acquired Borders's trademarks and customer list.
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Wikipedia