Borders Offers Discounts on e-Readers in Battle With Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Borders Group (BGP) is offering discounts on electronic readers through the rest of the month as the retailer battles Amazon.com (AMZN) and Barnes & Noble (BKS) for share of the rapidly growing e-reader market in advance of the holiday season.

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Borders will give $30 discounts on both the Velocity Micro Cruz and e-Ink Kobo e-readers through Oct. 31, selling those products for $169.99 and $99.99, respectively, the company said in a statement Monday. The company is also offering free shipping for its e-readers as well as $25 gift cards with every purchase of the $299.99 Velocity Micro Cruz tablet computer.

Borders is looking to boost sales of e-readers and pull sales from online retail giant Amazon and its Kindle e-readers. Amazon last week said third-quarter profit rose 16% from a year earlier largely on an 80% surge in U.S. sales of its electronics products. The company has increased demand for Kindle by offering 720,000 books on the U.S. Kindle store.

Meanwhile, retailer Barnes & Noble on Tuesday will host an event at its flagship store in New York City's Union Square. While the bookseller isn't saying officially what will be announced, it's widely believed to be a new, color edition of the Nook e-reader, appropriately named Nook Color, that will operate on Google's (GOOG) Android operating system.