Malone

For Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS) founder Leonard Riggio to take his bookstores private, he may need to write a check for more than the entire company’s market value.

Riggio said yesterday that he will offer to buy the retail stores and website of the New York-based company he started more than 40 years ago, leaving shareholders with Barnes & Noble’s college book and Nook e-reader businesses. The retail chain alone is worth about $1 billion, according to the average of four analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg…

Liberty Media, the media conglomerate controlled by John C. Malone, agreed on Thursday to buy a stake in Barnes & Noble for $204 million, but declined to buy the bookseller outright.

The deal would disappoint investors who had hoped that Liberty, whose investments include Starz Entertainment, the home shopping channel QVC and the Atlanta Braves baseball team, would acquire a majority stake. Liberty had offered in May to buy 70 percent of Barnes & Noble for $17 a share if the retailer’s powerful chairman, Leonard S. Riggio, who controls nearly 30 percent of the company, assented.