Borders Group Inc. released its third quarter earnings statement yesterday and reported revenue dropped to $693.4 million — down from $765.2 million in the same quarter last year, and significantly less that the $726.5 million for the quarter analysts had predicted. Overall, sales fell 12.8% at Borders Superstores and 7.7% at its Waldenbooks stores, making for a net loss of $175.4 million, compared with $161.1 million in the same quarter of last year. So how will this impact the country’s second largest chain bookstore? Well, as Sarah Skidmore tells us in her AP wire report on the statement, “Borders has been in the midst of a turnaround for more than year. During that time it has sold off portions of its business, cut jobs, revamped some stores and limited its debt.” But the spiraling financial crisis has meant “vastly lower traffic and sales as consumers limit their spending in the bleak economy.” The company’s key plan to avoid bankruptcy — selling off its core US business as part of a larger financial restructuring — is now, apparently, no longer an option. Skidmore reports, “The company said Tuesday that management is ‘no longer contemplating a transaction.'”