This afternoon Borders Group filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission that executive VP Thomas D. Carney and chief information officer D. Scott Laverty had both stepped down (follow those links to read Forbes‘ profiles of both executives).

Here’s an excerpt from the notice: “On January 2, 2011, Thomas D. Carney resigned as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Borders Group, Inc (the “Company”). On January 3, 2011, D. Scott Laverty resigned as Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer of the Company.”

As we noted earlier today, gloomy news about vendor relations emerged over the holiday weekend, causing the bookstore’s stock price to drop. In December, the company reported that third quarter sales had decreased 17.6 percent compared to the same period last year.