Borders Group to Continue Strategic Alternatives

Borders Group to Continue Strategic Alternatives Process for Australia/New Zealand Businesses

ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 13 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP) Chief Executive Officer George Jones today issued the following statement regarding the strategic alternatives process for the company's Australia/New Zealand businesses.

( Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060208/BORDERSGRPLOGO )

"While Borders has a policy of not commenting on the strategic alternatives process unless or until an agreement is reached, we can confirm that we were in negotiations with A&R Whitcoulls regarding our Australia/New Zealand businesses, but at this time have ceased those negotiations. We will continue to explore meaningful opportunities with the goal of reaching an agreement that meets our company's objectives." Safe Harbor Statement This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. One can identify these forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "will," "projects," "expects," "estimated," "look toward," "going forward," "continuing," "planning," "returning," "guidance," "goal," "may," "intend," "anticipate," and other words of similar meaning. One can also identify them by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These statements are likely to address matters such as the company's future financial performance (including earnings per share growth, EBIT margins and inventory turns, liquidity, same-store sales growth, and anticipated capital expenditures and depreciation and amortization amounts), its strategic plans and expected financing and benefits relating to such plans (including steps to be taken to improve the performance of domestic superstores, the exploration of strategic alternatives with respect to certain international operations, the downsizing of the Waldenbooks Specialty Retail Segment and the development of a proprietary Web site) and its intentions with respect to dividend payments and share repurchases.

These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and plans to differ materially from those included in the company's forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, consumer demand for the company's products, particularly during the holiday season, which is believed to be related to general economic and geopolitical conditions, competition and other factors; the availability of adequate capital to fund the company's operations and to carry out its strategic plans; the performance of the company's information technology systems and the development of improvements to the systems necessary to implement the company's strategic plan, and, with respect to the exploration of strategic alternatives for certain international operations, the ability to attract interested third parties.

The company's periodic reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission contain more detailed discussions of these and other risk factors that could cause actual results and plans to differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements, and those discussions are incorporated herein by reference. The company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements.

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