Borders is a book and stationery retailer operating in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates by the Al Maya Group.

[7] In November 2009, Borders in the United Kingdom and Ireland collapsed into administration, with all stores closed by the end of the year, resulting in around 1,150 job losses.

[13] The Malaysian and Middle East Borders operations continued to trade under renewed franchise deals with Barnes & Noble, as well as a failed attempt in 2013 to re-establish the brand in Singapore.

[14] In 2015, Al Maya Group purchased the regional Borders trademark rights outright from Barnes & Noble, and subsequently diversified it into a merchandise mix consisting of books, toys and stationery.

They moved the retail bookshop to much larger quarters that had become available down the street at 303 South State, in the former location of the Wagner and Son men's clothing store.

[citation needed] Instead, many of the Borders senior management team left the company, leaving behind an even larger and more unwieldy division for Kmart executives to handle on the heels of aggressive expansions by rivals Barnes & Noble and Crown Books.

Facing its own fiscal problems and intense pressure from stockholders, Kmart spun off Borders in 1995, in a highly structured stock-purchase plan.

The concept stores were located in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Denver, Colorado; Las Vegas, Nevada; Panama City Beach, Florida; Noblesville, Indiana; Monroeville, Pennsylvania; and Alameda, California.

The monitors displayed special programs, as well as news, sports, and financial information provided through Ripple Networks, Inc., a California-based marketing service.

[31] In March 2007, the company announced the end of its marketing alliance with Amazon begun six years earlier, as well as plans to launch its own online business in early 2008.

[citation needed] On August 11, 2009, Borders revealed the names of the replacements for five of the eight members of the board of directors, who had previously announced their intentions to quit.

[citation needed] On May 21, 2010, it was revealed that Bennett S. LeBow, chairman of Vector Group, was making a large private investment in Borders stock.

At the end of 2010, Business Week and BBC News reported that Borders would be delaying its payments to publishers for inventory already received, to preserve liquidity.

[69] Former rival and the current second-largest chain of bookstores in the United States, Books-A-Million, had made a bid to acquire 30 to 35 stores and their assets on July 19, 2011, the day liquidation was approved by the courts.

[70][71][72][73][74][75][76] Books-A-Million later resurrected its offer to buy portions of Borders Group, purchasing the leases for 21 stores primarily in New England and Pennsylvania.

[citation needed] By the end of 2009, all of Borders's directly owned overseas locations had been sold or closed, leaving only the franchise stores in Dubai and Oman.

[citation needed] However, international Borders stores are still operating in Middle Eastern countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.

In Dubai, Al Maya Group purchased lifetime rights to the Borders brand in the Middle East in 2015, and subsequently diversified it into a merchandise mix consisting of books, toys and stationery.

[15] In 1997, the company established its first international store in Singapore, occupying 32,000 square feet (3,000 m2) in Wheelock Place, Orchard Road, which was then the largest bookstore there.

[83] To pay off debt, Borders sold all of its Australian, New Zealand and Singaporean stores to Pacific Equity Partners (owner of competitor Angus & Robertson) in 2008.

After this transaction, the Borders stores in the US, the UK (which had also been sold off to another company but closed down in 2009 due to entering administration) and the Asia/Pacific region were owned by three wholly independent entities.

[85] The Australian, New Zealand, and Singaporean stores were sold in June 2008 to Pacific Equity Partners (who also own local competitor Angus & Robertson), which then formed a new company, RedGroup Retail, to pay off debt.

[102] The last remaining Singaporean Borders store in Parkway Parade Shopping Center, closed its doors at 9 pm (Singapore time) after a final sale on Monday, September 26, 2011.

In September 2007, Borders (UK) Ltd. was acquired by Luke Johnson's London-based private equity investor Risk Capital Partners in a deal purportedly worth £20 million.

Bookshop Acquisitions Ltd. - a subsidiary of Risk Capital Partners - was specifically set up for the purchase, and the deal included the right to use the Borders and Books etc.

Upon his appointment, Downer called for a category review of the entire company, although he made it clear there were no immediate plans to further change the structure of the business.

[112] Subsequently, it was announced in March 2008 that Borders (UK) planned to close its distribution centre (based in Cornwall) on 29 August, in favour of having publishers and wholesalers deliver directly to its shops, this being exactly opposite to the decision of competitor Waterstones, which planned to test and open its own distribution centre, colloquially referred to as 'The Hub', from the end of May.

In a bid to try to take back a share of internet sales of books, the beta testing of its new transactional website commenced, due for full completion before the end of the month.

[115] At the end of September 2009, it was announced that the majority of the remaining Books Etc., and the two Borders Express shops, would be sold,[116] and closing down sales began shortly after.

[119] On 26 November 2009, Reuters announced that Borders (UK) had entered administration, after reportedly having difficulties raising enough cash to trade through the key Christmas period.