In the hundreds of documents Borders has released since it filed for bankruptcy February 16, a fair number have contained information about how much money the bookstore chain owes its various creditors. And while a thick new document released yesterday lists every creditor to which Borders owes almost $396 million in trade payables, a second document shows how much money Borders paid publishers and other vendors within the 90 days prior to going Chapter 11. The two biggest companies to cash checks were Baker & Taylor and Ingram.
Borders paid about $40 million to B&T in the 90 days prior to filing bankruptcy and another $10 million to Baker & Taylor Entertainment. The chain paid Ingram Content Group $48.7 million with more than half of that coming after most publishers had stopped shipping books to Borders. Between January 24 and February 11 Borders paid Ingram $24.6 million and towards the end of the period payments came in round numbers such as $2.3 million.
Among publishers, Random House and Penguin each received about $24 million before Borders chose to stop paying its largest vendors. Random House received $24.3 million in the 90-day period with the last big check, $1.6 million, coming December 24. According to the documents, Penguin received two payments on November 19--$12.2 million paid to Penguin USA and paid another $12.2 million to Penguin Putnam. HarperCollins also took home some big checks late in 2010, with Borders paying HC $14.1 million in the 90-day span, the bulk of which, $12.5 million, was paid by December 9. Like a number of other publishers, HC received payments from Borders late in December and early 2011 in small increments in what might have been cash deals. Macmillan, for instance, received $6.8 million in the period with all but about $700,000 paid by December 1. Simon & Schuster received its last payment December 9, and received a total of $10.7 million. Hachette Book Group received $4.9 million with its last check dated December 17.
Perseus cashed $3.7 million in checks, with $3.5 coming before December 1. Among distributors, Ingram Publisher Services took home $1.5 million, while IPG was paid $706,181. NBN, one of the first vendors to stop shipping Borders, was paid $475,095.
Looking at what some other publishers and vendors received prior to February 16, Publications International received a payment of $1.1 million, while Sourcebooks took home just over $1 million. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt was paid $516,055. Google received $604,662, while Build-A-Bear Workshop got $51,980. Borders paid Jet Blue $96,736 in the 90 days and Boston Consulting $1.2 million. The magazine and paperback distributor Source Interlink received $16.8 million.
To see what all creditors owed at least $5,300 were paid, click here; to see if Borders owns you money (and if you are at all associated with publishing they do), click here.
