Company's weakening financial situation has made it vulnerable to takeovers as bookseller reckons with faltering ebook venture
CEO Leonard Riggio intends to make an
offer for Barnes & Noble Booksellers, barnesandnoble.com and other retail
assets. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Barnes & Noble
was once the Goliath of the book-selling business. Now, next to Apple and
Amazon, its falling sales and plan to close 20 stores a year makes it look more
like a struggling David armed only with a slingshot.
Barnes & Noble's weakening financial position makes the company
vulnerable to takeover offers, and it received one on Monday. Barnes & Noble
said in a regulatory filing that its founder and chairman, Leonard Riggio,
proposed buying the company's bookstore business and its barnesandnoble.com
domain. Riggio will not make an offer for the Nook e-reader business, according
to the company. He already owns 29.8% of the company. It is not yet known how much Riggio plans to offer, or whether he has arranged the cash and bonds to pay for it. The company indicated in a filing that the deal is subject to negotiation of Riggio's specific financial terms, including terms of whatever financing he can gather.
Riggio could well end up with a bargain. The bookstore business of Barnes & Noble could be worth only about $484.5m, according to estimates by Stifel Nicolaus analyst David Schick based on the company's sales over the past 12 months.
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