Greg Maffei

Three years after bookseller Borders filed for bankruptcy, is another bookstore staple getting closer to the chopping block? Barnes & Noble NE -0.91%, the largest bookseller in the U.S., isn't a goner just yet, but the development it revealed Thursday morning is not pretty: investor Liberty Media LMCA -1.24%, which once considered buying Barnes & Noble for $1 billion, is slashing its stake and privately selling a majority of its investment in the struggling book chain.