All that talk about the new face-out policy at Borders turns out to be so much window-dressing: The real story comes this morning in the form of a $42.5 million bailout, with funds coming from Pershing Square Capital Management, a major investor in the bookstore chain. "We believe that consummation of the transactions under the commitment will make us fully funded for 2008," said Borders CEO George Jones in a prepared statement, "where absent these measures, liquidity issues may otherwise have arisen in the next few months." Translation: We needed the money now. (Jones maintains that the company's financial goals "remain attainable," just not on the original timetable.)

As part of the financing deal, Pershing Square may wind up paying another $125 million for the international outlets Borders has been trying to sell for some time.