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See my post below. I don't think it was just behind the scenes "operations" stuff but mostly had to do with "finance" ... Bill Ackman's hedge fund was involved.

Bill Ackman, uber hedge fund manager, lost $125 million on Borders. Sounds like his plan was to fund a Borders + B&N merger.

So I suspect Borders tanked because Bill Ackman or some other hedge fund wanted it to tank to get out, cut loses, or some other behind the scences financing deal they had in mind such as sell off the commercial real estate "closed borders stores"

Wonder how many of the Borders stores now become B&N stores? You never know.

Good luck, this is a good idea. The problem is not just compensation:

I believe there are tons of talented developers "locked up" in large corporations due to health insurance / health benefits, especially those with kids. Universal health insurance would help start-ups and small business compete with the Facebook's and Google's and also Bank of America's as health care would become an "even playing field".

Currently most small business and start-ups cannot compete with the health care and other benefit cost structures large American firms can achieve.

In fact, lots of corporate roll-ups exist only to reduce benefit costs - think of them as large health insurance providers.