Borders's Fifth Round of 2010 Layoffs Hits Corporate Office

A little more than a week after making its fourth round of layoffs in 2010 alone, struggling book retailer Borders (BGP) has done it again, this time at the corporate level.

According to AnnArbor.com and confirmed by DailyFinance, this morning Borders laid off an unspecified number of the 650 employees working at the company's Ann Arbor headquarters. In a statement, spokeswoman Mary Davis confirmed the "job eliminations" and added: "As we aggressively work to restore the financial health of the company, we have reorganized core areas of our business to ensure that we have the necessary resources in place to support our strategic initiatives. As part of this process, we have made changes to our staffing levels so that the right people are in the right positions and that those positions are aligned with our strategic objectives."

The news of another round of cuts comes about two weeks before Borders is due to report its second-quarter earnings. Shedding employees is hardly a harbinger of good financial tidings. What the new round of layoffs instead suggests is the possibility that Wall Street will hit Borders where it hurts -- in its already decimated stock price. Shares are currently down this morning at $1.26 and another bad quarter could send that price below the $1 mark. Borders narrowly avoided being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in early 2009, and its inablity to turn its fortune around fast enough could yet lead to that unhappy outcome.