The sale of most of Borders Group's intellectual property assets to Barnes & Noble is being delayed because the judge in the bankruptcy case said yesterday that he needed more time to consider privacy issues, Reuters reported.As noted here yesterday, B&N is objecting to an ombudsman's recommendation that customers who joined Borders's loyalty program before May 27, 2008, need to approve having their information transferred to B&N.
In the hearing yesterday, Borders sided with B&N, but the judge said he worried that federal and state regulators would question the privacy issue. B&N has said that it has strong privacy policies and that 31% of the customers at issue are already B&N customers.
A lawyer for B&N said the company is "very much interested" in completing the deal but is concerned the deal might fall apart "unnecessarily." Another hearing is scheduled for Monday.