Borders Group Inc. (New York) is closing its doors. The second-largest U.S. bookstore chain announced it has canceled an upcoming bankruptcy auction after unsuccessfully looking for a buyer, according to Reuters.
The company will sell itself to a group of liquidators led by Hilco Merchant Resources.
The announcement affects Borders' roughly 400 remaining stores and nearly 11,000 employees, according to the company. “We are saddened by this development,” Borders president Mike Edwards said in the statement. “We were all working hard towards a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time … have brought us to where we are now.”
A deal from buyout firm Najafi Cos, which owns the Book-of-the-Month Club, fell apart last week after creditors objected to terms that would have allowed Najafi to liquidate after completing the sale.
Borders declared bankruptcy in February 2011 after delaying payments to landlords and publishers. It conducted going-out-of-business sales at about 200 of the 642 stores it operated prior to bankruptcy.