ANN ARBOR, MI/1/17/07—Borders Books, Inc. has formed an alliance with Gather.com, the social networking site, to encourage discussions about books, thus hopefully boosting awareness and book sales. Terms of the partnership were not disclosed, but Borders discussions will appear as borders.gather.com, a sub-domain of Gather.com.
In addition to tuning in on discussions on everything from Harry Potter to tips on forming a book club, visitors will be able to start their own conversations on favorite novels, books or movies. The community will also have direct links to Borders' online store, bordersstores.com, where users can make purchases or order books to be picked up at a local Borders retail store.
In November, 2006, Boston-based Gather.com announced that it had raised $10 million in an initial round of venture capital led by Pilot House Ventures. Other investors in the deal include Hearst Corp., The McGraw-Hill Cos. Jack Connors, chairman of Hill Holliday and Gather.com CEO Tom Gerace.
Gather has a current membership of 170,000 members which it hopes will grow as a result of the deal with Borders. Gather is free to join and is similar to the MySpace model which generates revenue through advertising.
With 1,300 outlets around the world, Borders is seeking new ways to help customers create richer and more satisfying lives through knowledge and entertainment and to connect with the books, music and movies.
Borders Group, Inc. trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BGP. The company is a leading global retailer of books, music, movies, and gift and stationery items with 2005 revenues of $4 billion. Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Borders Group, through its subsidiaries, employs more than 34,000 people worldwide and serves more than 30 million customers each year on a global basis. The company is organized into three business segments: Borders Domestic Superstores, International, and Waldenbooks Specialty Retail. At the close of fiscal third quarter 2006, there were 487 domestic Borders Superstores. In the International segment, there were 61 Borders superstores located mainly in the U.K. and Asia Pacific, as well as 30 Books etc. stores primarily throughout Great Britain.
Before launching Gather, CEO Tom Gerace served for two years as Senior Vice President, Marketing, for National Leisure Group (NLG), a $1 billion annual seller of travel. He had primary responsibility for developing brands owned by the company and for managing brands licensed by the company.