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Friday, June 27, 2014

Barnes & Noble shedding Nook


Digital Book World reports.  And this is my take on the not unexpected news.

Barnes &Noble is to spin off its long-troubled Nook Media device, along with the allied digital media sales business.  The shedding will be accomplished by the start of 2015, according to the company's 2014 financial statement.

There are two possibilities.  Either the Nook Media business (including B&N's college bookstore operation) will become its own publicly traded company, or it will be sold to a private investor.

The first would separate it from B&N's retail operation, which would be in the interest of "optimizing shareholder value."

Shares of Barnes &Noble stock are up almost 10% in early trading on the news.
As separate businesses, Barnes &Noble’s bricks-and-mortars continued to perform well.
Why is the college bookstore operation linked to the Nook business?

It's beyond me to tell. Six hundred college bookstores are surely not worth shedding.

According to the financial report, revenues were $1.6 billion.

That's down by about 1% from last year, but it is still a lot of money. 


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