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Economy |
Barnes & Noble closes the book on Nook |
2014-06-26 |
[AMERICASMARKETS.USATODAY] Barnes & Noble, the struggling bookseller, saw its shares jump 8% Wednesday after saying it will spin off its Nook digital book business. The Nook business, which produced digital readers that were a constant also-ran versus offerings from Amazon, Google and Apple, required heavy investments from the company that it was ill-prepared to afford. Shares are up $2.13, or 10%, to $22.69 on the news. The unit, to be spun off into a new publicly traded company called Nook Media, is 17% owned by Microsoft and 5% owned by publisher Pearson. The company plans to create a tablet in partnership with Samsung. The new business is expected to be pulled out of Barnes & Noble by March 2015. The core business isn't all that healthy, though. Barnes & Noble said sales at stores open at least a year will fall in the low single digit percentage in the upcoming fiscal year. The company posted a loss of $36.7 million in the quarter ended May 3. Yet, investors seem to be focused on the positives Wednesday. At least Barnes & Noble's quarterly loss is less severe than it was in the same quarter a year ago, when Barnes & Noble bled $114.8 million. |
Posted by:Fred |
#2 ...I suspect the market speculators who didn't get stuck with decaying paper and were able to unload their holdings (on other suckers) on the uptick in the shares. |
Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-06-26 09:14 |
#1 Considering that the book keeps trying to close on Barnes & Noble, you have to wonder who got the lifeboat here. |
Posted by: ed in texas 2014-06-26 07:41 |