With Borders' going-out-of-business sales underway, the company is getting ready to sell off its next most valuable property, its intellectual assets: trade marks, trade names, logos, Internet domain names, and customer information, including e-mail addresses and purchasing history. If the sales procedure is approved at the next hearing on August 10, a bid deadline will be set for September 8 at 5 p.m., followed by an auction on September 14 at 10 a.m.
According to the filing, Borders’s attorneys say that they “contemplate a straightforward sales process and auction.” There will be a cap of $250,0000 for reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses for a qualified stalking horse bidder. They also ask that the U.S. Trustee name a consumer privacy ombudsman, since the retailer will be selling private information outside a going-concern sale. Streambank will assist in the marketing and sale of Borders’s IP assets. And a sale, or sales, would take place on or before September 30.
In a declaration in support of the sale, Holly Felder Etlin, managing director of AlixPartners notes, “Because there is a cost associated with maintaining the IP Assets (primarily borders.com), selling the IP Assets on an accelerated timeframe will save the Debtors substantial costs.”
