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Bad News for Barnes & Noble: Nook Sales Drop 32 Percent from 2012 Levels

TMCnet Feature

November 27, 2013

Bad News for Barnes & Noble: Nook Sales Drop 32 Percent from 2012 Levels

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By Jacqueline Lee
Contributing Writer

For the quarter ending Oct. 26, Barnes & Noble Booksellers reported a 32-percent decline in Nook sales. The company reported $160 million in sales last year at the same time, but this year revenue dropped to just $109 million. Overall revenue, including in-store and BN.com sales, dropped 8 percent to $1.7 billion.


The company recently started selling its new Nook GlowLight tablet, an e-book reader similar to the Kindle Paperwhite. Company executives have identified basic e-book readers as a growth opportunity for the holiday season.

Analysts aren't concerned about the quality of the devices. "If you were just engineering a device that you wanted people to fall in love with, then yes, it’s a great device," Forrester Research (News - Alert) analyst James McQuivey told The New York Times.

"The bigger problem is, will people perceive that Barnes & Noble as a company will be around to fulfill the promises that that device makes?"

Barnes & Noble has had a year of fits and starts. First, the company ousted CEO William Lynch and announced plans to stop producing its own tablets. Second, founder and chairman Len Riggio scrapped his offer to purchase B&N's retail stores. For now, the company doesn't plan to spin off Nook Media. However, all of the directional changes have worried both shareholders and analysts.

At a recent shareholders meeting, Riggio appeared frustrated when questioned about his decision not to purchase the retail stores. "I’m not obliged to talk about personal decisions," he said. According to Publisher's Weekly, the shareholder backed off when Riggio appeared to get "a little hot under the collar."

"One side is demanding I buy retail, others stay I’m stealing retail. So I don’t know where you go from there," Riggio continued. "I love this company and this business so it's not all about money. It’s more personal. I don’t want to buy retail and I don’t have to say why."

Not all of the news is bad for the bookselling giant. Amazon is struggling to get a foothold in publishing thanks to the heft of Barnes & Noble's retail bookstores. Earlier this year, B&N refused to carry print copies of Amazon's digital and print publications. Indie bookstores agreed, citing distaste for a ruthless competitor like Amazon.




Edited by Cassandra Tucker

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