Borders Group (BGP) late yesterday said it is “no longer contemplating” the sale of the company. (You have to think that’s because they can’t find anyone to buy it.) That news, combined with some fairly ugly results for the fiscal third quarter ended Nov. 1, has the stock reeling. Combined with the recently punk numbers from Barnes & Noble (BKS), the latest results suggest all is not well in the book-selling business, providing one more reason to worry about current sales at online book selling king, Amazon.com (AMZN).

Borders reported Q3 sales of $682.1 million, well short of the Street consensus of $726.5 million. The company lost $172.2 million in the quarter, including $133.2 million in various noncash charges.

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Earlier this week, the hedge fund manager William Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management floated the idea that the book retailer Borders Group (BGP) should consider selling itself to Amazon.com (AMZN). That would be certainly be a good thing for Ackman, since Pershing Square owns about 30% of Borders. He compared the concept of Amazon-owned retailer stores to Apple’s successful move into bricks-and-mortar retailing.

But for a variety of reasons, this seems like a long shot idea. Scott Devitt, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, says bluntly, “not a chance.”

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