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Borders Makes a Bid for Barnes & Noble

After fending off billionaire investor Ronald W. Burkle earlier this year, Barnes & Noble founder Len Riggio is in the second stage of auctioning off his company, with about eight to ten potential buyers, including one familiar name: Borders. The possibility of a merger, which first arose in 2008 when Borders put itself on the market, is back on the table. Hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman, whose company, Pershing Square Capital Management, took Borders off the auction block, just offered Barnes & Noble a $960 million takeover bid. For more backstory, including the time Burkle tried to convince Barnes & Noble to buy a near-bankrupt Borders, see Andrew Rice’s profile from August.

Ackman Offers to Finance a Borders Bid for Barnes & Noble [DealBook/NYT]

Borders Makes a Bid for Barnes & Noble