Barnes & Noble Inc.

Barnes & Noble Seeks Big Expansion of Its College Stores
May 8, 2014

The U.S. bookseller, which opened in 1965 as a university bookstore in New York, wants a much bigger presence on college campuses, where students last year spent an average of $1,200 on textbooks and supplies, according to the College Board.

Barnes & Noble, now the second largest operator of college bookstores with 696 shops, plans to have about 1,000 locations within five years, Max Roberts, chief executive of the company's college business, said in an exclusive interview at Rutgers University's bookstore in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Smaller Barnes & Noble Stores? ‘Yes, It’s Possible,’ Says Leonard Riggio
April 22, 2014

Several weeks before Chairman Leonard Riggio sold his latest tranche of shares in Barnes & NobleBKS +2.68%, he sat down for a chat at the retailer's corporate offices in Manhattan.  Here, an edited Q&A:

WSJ: Will we see a smaller, 15,000-square foot Barnes & Noble bookstore one day?

Mr. Riggio: Yes, it's possible. You can't tell yet. Remember we had a really good holiday season. One of the things that you've observed is that it seems like the level of digital convergence from books to digital has decelerated.

Bad News For Books: Liberty Media Slashing Its Stake In Barnes & Noble
April 3, 2014

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.

Square Enix Launching English-Language Ebook Distribution of Manga in April
March 25, 2014

Square Enix is partnering with publisher Hachnette Book Group's graphic novel arm Yen Press to internationally distribute English language versions of the former company's manga properties in ebook form, the companies announced today.

The initiative will launch on April 8 and grant readers access to 175 ebook titles through Amazon, the Apple App Store, Barnes and Noble, Google and Kobo. New volumes in these series will be available through these services as they are released in the future.

Amazon First Ebook Retailer to Provide Refund from Price-Fixing Settlement
March 25, 2014

Customers who bought agency-priced ebooks between 2010 and 2012 are receiving credits for those books as a result of the publishers' settlements with the states. Kindle customers appear to be the first to get those credits.

Book publishers, as part of a price-fixing settlement with state governments, agreed to pay small credits to consumers who bought eligible ebooks between 2010 and 2013. Those credits started showing up in Kindle customers’ accounts Tuesday. Barnes & Noble also says credits will start showing up for Nook customers today.

Barnes & Noble, Microsoft Revise Nook Partnership
March 13, 2014

Barnes & Noble Inc. ( BKS ) and Microsoft Corp. ( MSFT ) have agreed to revise their partnership, allowing the bookseller to stop developing an app for its Nook e-reader that would work on Windows 8 devices or a Windows Phone.

Instead, the maker of the Nook will provide reading content for Microsoft's new consumer reader platform.

Barnes & Noble Cut Nook Investment by 74% in Third Quarter
March 10, 2014

Barnes & Noble's filing with the SEC for the third quarter of fiscal 2014 shows how dramatically the company is scaling back its Nook operations. During the period ended January 25, 2014, Nook capital expenditures were $7.4 million, a decline of 74% from the money spent on the group in the comparable period in fiscal 2013. For the first nine months of fiscal 2014, Nook capital expenditures were reduced 55%. The filing repeated what company executives said in the conference call last week that since

Barnes & Noble Gets Takeover Proposal From Firm Seeking Breakup
February 24, 2014

Barnes & Noble (BKS) Inc., the struggling bookseller, received a proposal from G Asset Management LLC to acquire 51 percent of the company at $22 a share, valuing the total business at $1.32 billion.

G Asset also proposed buying 51 percent of Barnes & Noble's Nook e-book division at $5 a share as an alternative deal, according to a statement yesterday from the investment firm. It said it was confident that separating the business would unlock "substantial" shareholder value.

Author James Patterson Gives $1 Million to Bookstores
February 20, 2014

Independent bookstores, with their paper-thin profit margins and competition from Amazon, have found themselves a Daddy Warbucks.

The best-selling author James Patterson has started a program to give away $1 million of his personal fortune to dozens of bookstores, allowing them to invest in improvements, dole out bonuses to employees and expand literacy outreach programs.