Barnes & Noble to Separate its Retail and Nook Businesses

The famous bookselling superstore, Barnes & Noble is to undergo a business separation soon. It will split its retail section and the Nook e-reader departments into two separate public companies by Q1 2015.

Barnes & Noble is about to enter a harrowing period as an economic split takes place in the company’s accounts and ownership rights. By the first quarter of next year, the company will have eased itself into a partition of functions. 

Basically, the retail section and the Nook e-reader departments are going their separate ways. Its business and sales have taken a turn for the worst and now with the readership’s tastes having evolved further along the road a change was imminent. 

The division and bifurcation of paths is planned for the early part of 2015. Barnes & Noble has not been able to compete on a par with Amazon as regards its Nook e-reader. 

The venture has been pretty much a failure and a white elephant of sorts. And while this has been the fate of the Nook e-reader, the retail section has been a bit better off but not by much. 

The CEO of Barnes & Noble explained the conundrum the company was facing and how the heads had to finally sit down and decide once and for all how to extract the floundering organization from this enigma. So, Nook Media and Barnes & Noble Retail were formed in order to get the whole matter settled fair and square. 

Now there won’t be any more hassles. This is a change of plans indeed since in the past the decision to stick together through thick and thin was taken. But it just couldn’t work out so the inevitable had to be faced in all its bitter reality and consequences. 

“In fiscal 2014 we have taken certain actions to strengthen the Company, including the ongoing rationalization of the NOOK business, growing the College business through new contract acquisitions and increased offerings to students and faculty, and initiatives to improve Retail’s sales trends,” said Michael P. Huseby, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble.

“Our fiscal 2014 results and solid financial position at year-end reflect the positive impact of those actions. We believe we are now in a better position to begin in earnest those steps necessary to accomplish a separation of NOOK Media and Barnes & Noble Retail. We have determined that these businesses will have the best chance of optimizing shareholder value if they are capitalized and operated separately. We fully expect that our Retail and NOOK Media businesses will continue to have long-term, successful business relationships with each other after separation.”

Its previous CEO, William Lynch, who had made a bid to see the Nook e-reader through, has resigned and now the organization is under Huseby’s command. The losses the firm has seen are somewhat of a shock since what had been hoped for never materialized. 

It seems that there are not many readers left in the world since most of the libraries are often seen to be empty. People have shifted from the textual to the visual as a source of inspiration.

Source: WSJ