Whitcoulls cleared to acquire Borders
The Commerce Commission has cleared Whitcoulls to acquire 100 per cent of the shares in Borders.
Commission Chair Paula Rebstock said that the Commission was satisfied that the proposed acquisition would not have, or would not be likely to have, the effect of substantially lessening competition in any of the relevant markets.
Whitcoulls is an Australian proprietary company registered with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, and is owned by private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners.
Whitcoulls and Borders are both involved in the retail of books, magazines, stationery, cards and DVDs.
Borders is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Borders Group, which is listed on the New York stock exchange.
The Commerce Commission has cleared Whitcoulls to acquire 100 per cent of the shares in Borders.
Commission Chair Paula Rebstock said that the Commission was satisfied that the proposed acquisition would not have, or would not be likely to have, the effect of substantially lessening competition in any of the relevant markets.
Whitcoulls is an Australian proprietary company registered with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, and is owned by private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners.
Whitcoulls and Borders are both involved in the retail of books, magazines, stationery, cards and DVDs.
Borders is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Borders Group, which is listed on the New York stock exchange.
5 comments:
When the worst large book chain in the country acquires the best, I think it's reasonable to assume the outlook is bad for book buyers.
Bugger!
The world's 2nd-worst chain acquires part of one of the best. Bugger Whitgoulls!
Gavin McLean
I am curious as to why you both call Borders "one of the best". Dymocks always wins the group bookseller award except once, when borders scored. Why? Because they started buying a VERY SMALL part of their inventory from local suppliers. In NZ, borders still shelve their Te Reo material in the bay titled "foreign languages". The whole thing augers v badly for the local suppliers and hence (flow on of terms of trade) for the fabulous independents as well.
I can't speak for the others but I always think of Dymocks (in NZ anyway) as being independents. I guess that's because they are individually owned franchise operations. Whereas Whitcoulls and Borders are both definitely chains.
I agree with Bookman Beattie on this one. And what a shame it was that Dymocks who were looking at buying Borders didn't proceed as this would have seen the creation of a small powerful chain to compete with Whitcoulls.
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