Borders.com will ask its customers to opt in before turning their data over to a site co-branded with Amazon.com, Ed Wilhelm, Borders.com CFO, told DIRECT Newsline. Until then, the Ann Arbor, MI-based Borders.com will not release information on its approximately 4 million customers.
"We will notify customers [by e-mail] and they will have an opportunity to become customers of the co-branded site," Wilhelm said. "If they don’t answer, we’ll give them continuing opportunities to opt in."
Until then, "the information we own right now pertaining to our customers remains our information," added spokesperson Ann Binkley.
The Borders Group Inc., which is shuttering its online book division, reached an agreement with Amazon.com, Seattle, to sell books, music and videos over the Internet together through a site debuting in August. Borders.com executives would not disclose financial terms of the deal except to say there will be a one-time up-front fee paid to Amazon, and revenue sharing as the new business rolls out.
About 65 employees of Borders.com operations will lose their jobs when the online division closes its doors, Wilhelm confirmed. But the company hopes to be able to offer those employees positions in the retail stores. "We recognize their talent and expertise," Binkley said.
Borders announced in February that it planned to take a one-time charge of more than $20 million, partly because of the depreciating value of its Web site. The company said then that it did not know when its online business would be profitable.
Borders is third in the online book market, with $27 million in sales last year, according to the New York Times. Amazon is No. 1, with $1.7 billion in sales of books, videos and music, followed by Barnesandnoble.com, with $320 million.
