Borders Files for Bankruptcy

Around 8 am this morning Borders announced on their Facebook page that they would indeed be filing for Chapter 11. The post linked to a statement at the newly formed bordersreorganization.com.


Publishers Weekly posted this article and promises to have more information as the day progresses. It's doubtful that Borders will post the store closings before they happen. The list of stores being closed has been leaked, but will be officially announced by Borders later today.
Melville House included this update on their site:
As a Publishers Weekly story by Jim Milliot and Judith Rosen reports, while this morning’s announcement has long seemed inevitable — to the point of seeming to take far too long to most in the industry — it was actually only sparked last night “foreshadowed” last night, when Ingram, the only major supplier still shipping books to the company, stopped all shipments.
Shelf Awareness announced in their morning newsletter much the same information, stating:
The company plans a significant number of store closings, "equivalent to approximately 30% of the company's national store network"--about 200 of its 639 stores, which include about 500 superstores and 139 smaller stores. The store closings will take place "in the next several weeks" and are, Borders said, "a reflection of economic conditions, cost structures and viability of locations, among other factors, and not on the dedication and productivity of the workforce in these stores."
And from Publisher's Lunch this morning, a list of the publishers and how much they're owed:


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 distributors are owed roughly $230 million (see below for the full list)....
The publisher creditor list comprises:
Penguin    $41.1 million
Hachette Book Group    $36.9 million
Simon & Schuster    $33.75 million
Random House    $33.5 million
HarperCollins    $25.8 million
Macmillan    $11.4 million
Wiley    $11.2 million
Perseus    $7.8 million
F+W Media    $4.6 million
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt    $4.4 million
Workman    $4 million
McGraw-Hill    $3.1 million
Pearson Education    $2.8 million
NBN    $2 million
Norton    $2 million
Zondervan    $1.9 million
Hay House    $1.7 million
Elsevier Science    $1.6 million
Publications Intl.    $1.1 million

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