March 3, 2011 - 4:27pm
Borders shareholders look into merging with Barnes & Noble
BY MICHELE NAROV
Borders shareholders are looking into acquiring competitor Barnes & Noble, annarbor.com reported.
The acquisition, which has been well received amidst investors in the Borders book store chain, is likely to result in a major cut in personnel and locations of the stores but will greatly increase the pricing powers of the chains.
The Borders headquarters, based in Ann Arbor, employs 600 workers. It is not currently clear how the merger would affect the headquarters.
According to a Feb. 5 report issued by The Michigan Daily, the Borders franchise struggled with decreasing sales and several lay-offs of corporate employees at the beginning of the year.
Barnes and Noble has also suffered from decreasing sales during the course of the 2010 fiscal year.
Due to the changing landscape of the book selling business, the merger hopes to help sustain the suffering companies.
According to the annarbor.com report, if the merger occurs, Barnes & Noble is likely to be the surviving brand, and Borders will cease to exist.
