Borders misses payment

Borders 'delaying' paying vendors at yahoo finance

Borders delays paying vendors at WSJ subscription required.

I'm sure there are dozens more links by now...
From the WSJ (fair use): "In an ominous turn of events for the book business, Borders Group Inc. said Thursday it is delaying payments to some publishers, a sign that its financial troubles are worsening."


My take:
With their dire need to raise cash... I do not give them good odds. My two favorite local bookstores are Borders. But for every pbook (mostly kids books with a few gifts) we buy at Borders, we've bought: two at Costco, three at discount stores, and four to five on Amazon.

Does anyone know what share of the pbook market Borders now holds? All the reference I could find were 'obviously out of date.'

For the market share Borders holds (held?) determines the impact of this serious financial action that is generally a sign of bankruptcy. I believe Borders customers will go to alternate sources pretty much in line with their book market share (plus or minus clever marketing). In other words, if ebooks are say 15% of the book market, than expect 15% of Borders customers dollars to transfer immediately to ebook vendors.

Note: I expect Borders ebook store to keep operating post bankruptcy.

This is actually really sad for me as I used to happily spend 4+ hours in the local Borders. Then again that store killed off my favorite Crown books which killed off my favorite Indie bookstore... So 'sad' is relative. Perhaps 'sad at seeing the final stage of the transition.'

Neil

ps 12/31/2010
Forbes Video "Losing money for years and getting worse."

Everyone is speculating *if* publishers will continue to ship books to Borders. They're news timing is perfect (the announcement is likely to get lost in tonight's merry making).