Ann Arbor-based bookstore chain Borders is giving up on finding a buyer and will submit a liquidation plan to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan as scheduled on Thursday, says the Detroit Free Press. According to The Wall Street Journal, liquidation sales at the chain's remaining 400 locations could begin as early as Friday and "should be done by the end of September." The chain filed for bankruptcy protection in February and still has close to 11,000 employees.

"Following the best efforts of all parties, we are saddened by this development," Borders Group President Mike Edwards said in the statement. “We were all working hard towards a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, eReader revolution, and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now."

Yesterday's deadline to submit bids for the retailer passed without any offers being made. Reuters reported earlier in the day that Alabama-chain Books-A-Million was in talks to buy "less than 50" of the remaining Borders stores.

According to the Journal, that means that when the 40-year-old retailer appears in court Thursday, they will ask the judge to "approve a sale of the company to firms that specialize in taking apart companies and selling them for scrap."

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Ray Gustini