News
Bankruptcy Judge Grants Borders' Filing Extension
posted on by Gia Manry
United States Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn granted Borders an additional 120 days to file its plan for getting past bankruptcy this week, despite objections filed by the Creditors Committee (which includes book publishers Penguin, HarperCollins, Random House, and Perseus Books Group). Borders requested the extension earlier this month after negotiations with publishers continued to fail. The company's new deadline to file a plan will be October 14, rather than June 16.
Borders' filing for bankruptcy came after a string of difficulties for the chain, including the departure of two of its executives and the delay of payments to publishers, followed by additional layoffs and an attempt to convince publishers to treat its debts as loans, which failed. As noted by the retail news source ICv2, Borders played a crucial role in the rise of manga sales in the United States in the first half of the last decade. Former Tokyopop CEO Stu Levy cited Borders' bankruptcy as part of the reasons for layoffs at the publisher shortly before its announcement of closure.
