Earlier this year I’d asked ‘Is Borders going out of business?‘ At that time Borders was also looking for a buyer, essentially a white knight to come riding in on a purple unicorn with a long flowing rainbow mane.

Things haven’t gone well since and Borders 3rd quarter results contained the following bit of information under the heading ‘Strategic Alternative Update’.

Management provided an update to its previously disclosed strategic alternatives process, which included the exploration of a wide range of options, among them the sale of the company and/or certain divisions, including Paperchase Products Ltd. With respect to the sale of the company, management is no longer contemplating a transaction.

Now lets be clear about what this really means. No one wanted to buy Borders Books.

Not Barnes & Noble, not Amazon, not some European bookseller, nobody wanted Borders. I mean, when the big win for your quarter is debt reduction you know things aren’t rosy.

Debt, including the prior-year debt of discontinued operations, was reduced from a year ago by 34.2% or $273.1 million at the end of the third quarter to $525.4 million. This compares to debt of $798.5 million at the end of the third quarter last year.

The stock is now down 97% in the last year and sits today at approximately $0.35 a share.