NEW YORK (AP) Ann Arbor-based Borders Group Inc., the nation"s second-largest book retailer, is abandoning its money-losing online business, turning it over to Amazon.com Inc. as part of a new partnership between the two companies.

A new co-branded Borders.com website will launch in August, the companies announced yesterday. Amazon.com will become the seller of record, providing inventory, fulfillment and content and customer service, including personalization features, for the site.

Amazon.com"s website will continue to operate independently.

Borders will eliminate all 70 jobs in its Borders.com operation, though the company said that it will be looking to find laid off workers jobs within the organization, according to Greg Josefowicz, president and chief executive officer of Borders.

Both companies declined to comment on specific terms of the agreement, but Borders officials said that it would be making an undisclosed one-time payment to Amazon.com. Borders also will share a percentage of the revenue with Amazon, though officials said no stock exchange is involved.

Both Amazon and Borders officials said that it will not affect the earnings guidance previously issued by either company. The news didn"t impress many Wall Street analysts, who dismissed the alliance as having modest financial impact on Amazon.

"It doesn"t seem that material to me," said Faye Landes, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein & Co. "It would be nice if they found someone to pay a lot of money and take some inventory risk in some of their dicier categories."

Those categories include consumer electronics and hardware, areas which have been growing but have not yet turned a profit for the company.

Amazon has reportedly had discussions with such retailers as Best Buy Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Jeff Bezos, Amazon"s chief executive, in an interview with The Associated Press, declined to comment, saying only: "We would like to have more partnerships."

Referring to the new alliance with Borders, Bezos said, "This isn"t symbolic. There are potential synergies with Borders physical stores."

As part of the deal, the companies said they may expand the agreement to allow customers to reserve titles online for later purchase and pickup at a Borders store.