Disappearing act: Borders brothers nowhere to be found
The Borders of today is a far cry from the 800-square-foot book shop founded on South State Street in Ann Arbor in 1971 by brothers Tom and Louis Borders.
Borders liquidating
- Borders plans to liquidate, ending 40-year-old bookstore chain
- Column: Borders' expansion hastened its implosion
- Borders' rise and fall: a timeline of the bookstore chain's 40-year history
- What's next for downtown Ann Arbor Borders store after chain closes?
- Downtown store closure also means a loss of arts and music venue
- Expected closure of Borders superstore in Pittsfield Township leaves shopping center with vacancy
- Disappearing act: Borders brothers nowhere to be found
- Residents express disappointment and sense of inevitability at closing of flagship Borders store
- Read Borders CEO Mike Edwards' letter to employees announcing liquidation
- Media watch: What other news sites are reporting on the Borders liquidation
- Share your memories of Borders' 40-year heritage in Ann Arbor
But the Borders brothers are nowhere to be found. In fact, it appears that they haven't said much of anything about Borders over the last decade.
A web search today turned up no comments by the Borders brothers about the company's liquidation, despite a swarm of media coverage about the announcement.
The Borders brothers, natives of Louisville, Ky., sold the chain to retailer Kmart Corp. in 1992, when they had only 21 stores. They left the company, then Kmart merged it with Waldenbooks and spun it out into a public company in 1995.
The Borders brothers have long since moved on. Louis — who famously founded the grocery delivery website Webvan.com only to see it implode in 2001 during the dot-com bubble bust — is still an entrepreneur and investor in Silicon Valley. Efforts to reach him have been unsuccessful.
Tom Borders is now involved in a financial business in Austin, Texas. Tom Borders also helps to run a family grant-making nonprofit called the Tapestry Foundation, which distributed $202,600 in grants to community groups in Texas in 2009, according to tax records.
In February, he declined interviews about Borders. Today, someone who answered the phone at his financial firm said he was not in the office and there was no way to contact him to speak about the liquidation.
Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's newsletters.
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