Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Barnes & Noble Hires Patrick Rouvillos To Oversee International Nook Expansion; Dixons Retail Added As New UK Partner

PublishersLunch

Barnes & Noble has solidified its plans to expand NOOK beyond the US and the UK with the appointment of Patrick Rouvillois as vp, managing director for international, reporting to Jamie Iannone. Rouvillois, who will work out of Luxembourg, was most recently global cmo and head of eCommerce for Carrefour. "We're thrilled to have Patrick join the team as we embark on our international expansion of the NOOK brand into the UK and beyond," Iannone said in a statement. "Patrick brings strong leadership to the role, and his vast background in the retail, consulting, telecom and media sectors will be incredibly valuable."

BN also announced that Dixons Retail, owner of UK-based electrical retailers PC World and Currys, will also sell Nook Simple Touch and Glowlight in more than 600 stores in the UK later this fall. And earlier Tuesday, the company announced the launch later this fall of Nook Video, which will sell digital movies and TV shows for streaming and downloading. Participating studios and channels include HBO, Disney, Warner Bros., and Starz (a spinoff property of BN minority investor Liberty Media), with more to be announced later. Interestingly, they promise that Nook Video will arrive in the UK for "the holiday season." The company aims to leverage their long history of selling video on discs by linking "a customer's compatible physical DVD and Blu-ray Disc purchases and digital video collection across their devices," letting them use the Nook Cloud to watch compatible videos bought on disc through Nook devices and apps.

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