Friday, October 05, 2007

Borders CEO Jones Buys 50,000 shares

Nothing speaks to committment than dipping into your own pocket and putting your money where your mouth is and that's exactly what Borders' CEO George Jones has done with his purchase of 50,000 shares. While Borders' hit a long term low after their recent earnings announcement this endorsement may both shore up the share price and let investors know that senior management believes the future looks good for Borders. This purchase was one of the largest single purchases of Borders' stock in recent years. The purchase cost over $660,000 and as a result, Jones owns over 121,000 shares.

In related news, the company also annouced a fulfillment agreement with Baker&Taylor for support of the to be launced Borders.com retail site.

"We selected Baker & Taylor as our primary fulfillment partner because of their excellent track record with consumer-direct fulfillment of all of the product types we'll offer at Borders.com, and their ability to serve our customers in the superior manner they deserve," said Kevin Ertell, vice president of e-business for Borders Group.

"We are delighted to be Borders' fulfillment partner for book and entertainment products" said Richard Willis, CEO, Baker & Taylor, Inc. "We look forward to working closely with Borders on this exciting initiative and providing their customers with the world-class fulfillment services that are a standard of B&T."


In the same announcement, the company formally annouced the beta for the new retail site with some description of the site's features.


One such feature is the Magic Shelf(TM), which Borders has been testing on the beta site for over four weeks. The Magic Shelf is Borders' unique online version of the warm and engaging shopping experience that takes place in its bookstores every day. When arriving at the site's home page, customers see a realistic looking, three-dimensional shelf of actual book covers displayed as they would be in a Borders store. For details on each title, customers simply click on a book that interests them, much the way they pick up books that catch their eye in Borders stores. Over time, as customers shop at the future Borders.com, the Magic Shelf will become personalized for the shopper based on past purchases and will display books that the customer may be particularly interested in exploring. On the beta site, there is a related Magic Shelf feature called "Picked for You." Customers simply indicate the subjects in which they have an interest, and Borders will stock the "Picked for You" shelf with books on those subjects.

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