In 1971 brothers Tom & Louis Borders opened a used bookstore, Borders Books, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, targeted at meeting the specific needs and desires of the local academic community. Over the next 20 years they would expand Borders Books by introducing their concept, of tailoring each store’s inventory to the unique market desires of the supporting community, to academic based communities all over the United States.

In 1992 the Kmart Corporation, the owner of Waldenbooks since 1984, purchased Borders Books and merged the two companies in an effort to improve the struggling mall based Waldenbooks chain. By 1995 Kmart, under pressure from shareholders and the dominance of the book market by Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble declared the merger a failure. Borders-Walden Books was spun off into a new publicly traded company, the Borders-Walden Group Inc., later to be renamed the Borders Group. This created the United States’ second largest book retailer behind Barnes & Noble Inc.

In March of 2008, in response to global retail conditions, the recessionary U.S. economy and the resulting reduction in sales Borders retained J.P. Morgan Securities and Merrill Lynch & Co. as advisors on strategic alternatives for the company. These include the possible sale of the company or certain corporate divisions. In addition dividend payments have been suspended, a head count reduction instituted company-wide at all levels and a $42.5 million dollar emergency financing loan arranged at a 12.5% interest rate in order to allow normal operations to continue.

Borders has terminated its long-term marketing alliance with Amazon.com, Amazon provided fulfillment services for Borders web sales division and has announced the closing of approximately 350 Walden Books & Borders Express locations.

1. Stock Symbol: (NYSE): BGP
2. Annual Revenue: $4.11 Billion (2006)
3. Headquarters: Ann Arbor, MI (Map)
4. Staff: 30,000
5. Number of Stores: 1,200
6. CEO: Mr. George L. Jones
7. Largest Shareholder: Pershing Square Capital Management LP