Major Online Bookseller Collapses, Share Price Wiped Out

A month after Booktopia said it was arranging $1 million (US$668 million) in emergency funding—and its shares collapsed to just 6 cents—the major online bookseller has collapsed and entered voluntary administration. When it first signalled it was in trouble on June 3 this year, the bookseller announced its chief executive was departing, and it was withdrawing its earning forecasts. The company also planned to borrow $1 million at 18 percent interest rate to pay for 50 redundancies at its headquarters Sydney—an expense it could not afford to meet from the $212,000 in cash reserves it had at the time. It was going to issue $400,000 in shares to secure the revolving debt facility from AFSG Capital, with an additional $200,000 to be paid in shares upon initial borrowing....