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Borders is planning liquidation sales in the 200 stores it is shutting down as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
“There will be opportunities for liquidation-type sales,” Borders spokesman Donald Cutler said Thursday. “Specifications about them will be revealed in the coming days and weeks.” Get the full story »
Gift cards at a Borders bookstore in Washington. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
A judge late Wednesday granted Borders Group approval on an interim basis to use $400 million of the $505 million in financing it has been offered to pay its vendors back and keep its business going, including honoring its loyalty program and gift cards.
The decision is the start of a lengthy and difficult process for Borders, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday. The No. 2 U.S. bookseller is attempting to successfully reorganize so it can emerge from bankruptcy protection a smaller and profitable company.
Borders is accepting bids in an auction for companies to run its store closings and clearance sales. Get the full story »
The Borders at North and Halsted in Chicago will close. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Borders Group Inc. plans to close almost half of its stores in the Chicago area as part of its proposed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to a Wednesday filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.
According to the Borders Web site, the bookseller has about 30 stores in Chicago and its suburbs, including a few Indiana locations.
In Chicago, five of eight stores will close, including the one at North Avenue and Halsted Street, as well as those in Lincoln Park, Uptown, Lincoln Village and Beverly. The Hyde Park store is already in the process of closing and will shut its doors on March 7. This means the only Borders superstore left in the city will be in the Loop. A Borders-owned Waldenbooks in Citicorp Center will also remain open. Get the full story »
A Borders at the corner of Pearson and Michigan Ave. in Chicago, which closed in January of 2011. (Heather Charles/Tribune)
Borders Group Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection and said it planned to close nearly one-third of its bookstores, after years of shriveling sales that made it impossible to manage its crushing debt load.
The long-expected Chapter 11 filing will give the second-largest U.S. bookstore chain a chance to fix its finances and shrink its business at a time when buyers are increasingly going online rather than visiting megastores. The bankruptcy could help larger rival Barnes & Noble Inc, which also is struggling, by reducing the number of competing stores. Get the full story »
Bloomberg News | The Robert R. McCormick Foundation, onetime one of the largest shareholders in Tribune Co., opposes the remaining two reorganization plans for the media giant, because neither would end lawsuits against shareholders, including the foundation, that made billions of dollars in the company’s leveraged buyout.
Tribune Co. said Friday that the long-awaited creditor vote in the media company’s 26-month-old bankruptcy case will allow both restructuring plans competing for a judge’s approval to move forward toward confirmation hearings scheduled for March 7.
The vote provided no surprises. Each of the two competing plans won support from the creditor alliance that proposed it and suffered rejection from the other side.
Tribune Co. owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other media properties. Get the full story »
Bookseller Borders Group Inc. could file for bankruptcy as soon as Monday or Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Get the full story »
Blockbuster Inc., which filed for bankruptcy last year, is preparing to put itself up for sale after creditors disagreed on plans to give the chain more cash, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources. Get the full story »
A group of lenders has withdrawn its plan for reorganizing newspaper owner Tribune Co, leaving two proposals for ending the company’s two-year stay in bankruptcy, according to court documents.
The group known as the Bridge Lenders agreed to withdraw its plan and support Tribune’s proposal, which is based on a settlement among lenders JPMorgan Chase & Co and hedge funds Oak Tree Capital Management and Angelo, Gordon & Co. Get the full story »
People pass the Borders Book and Music store at the corner of Pearson and Michigan Avenue in January of 2011. The store is closing. (Heather Charles/Chicago Tribune)
Borders Group Inc. might file for bankruptcy protection as soon as next week, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday, citing three people familiar with the matter.
The second-biggest U.S. bookstore chain by sales will likely close at least 150 stores, one of the sources said.
Several private-equity groups are considering making a junior loan to the company based in Ann Arbor, Mich., one of the people told Bloomberg. Get the full story »
Chicago-based Tribune Co. said Wednesday that operating cash flow at its two largest publishing units — the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune — was essentially flat in 2010 compared to 2009, while overall operating cash flow increased $140 million to $635 million.
“The past year showed substantial improvement over 2009,” Chandler Bigelow, Tribune Co.’s chief financial officer, said in a statement. Get the full story »
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Monday dismissed the idea that states should be allowed to declare bankruptcy, diminishing the possibility that any legislation opening bankruptcy courts to the states will work its way through Congress.
Cantor, speaking to reporters, was reacting to reports last week that some fellow Republican members of Congress were preparing legislation to allow cash-strapped states to declare bankruptcy as an alternative to turning to the federal government for financial help. Get the full story »
Attorneys for creditors who oppose the Tribune Co.’s proposed reorganization plan are seeking more information related to the 2007 leveraged buyout that left the media conglomerate saddled with debt. Get the full story »
Some of the biggest U.S. states with the worst budget deficits on Friday rejected any federal help in the form of a bill that would allow them to file for bankruptcy — something they now are barred from.
Legislation that would allow U.S. states to file for bankruptcy will likely be introduced in Congress within the next month, Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives who remains a powerful figure in the Republican party, told Reuters on Friday. Get the full story »
New York Times | An effort is under way to allow financially troubled states, such as Illinois, to file for bankruptcy and escape massive debt, including pensions for retired workers.
