Barnes & Noble up for sale; founder may bid

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Barnes & Noble (BKS.N), the number one U.S. book store chain, is putting itself up for sale as business suffers in the high-stakes battle for a leading role in the digital books market.

Barnes & Noble, whose shares soared 25 percent on the news, said company founder and top shareholder Leonard Riggio is considering bidding for the company as part of a larger investor group.

An auction for Barnes & Noble could draw interest from several other quarters, including billionaire investor Ron Burkle, as well as raise speculation about a combination with smaller rival Borders Group Inc (BGP.N). Shares in Borders rose 6 percent late on Tuesday.

But valuing a deal for Barnes & Noble, beset by competition from the likes of Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and Apple Inc (AAPL.O) in the electronic books market, could prove difficult. The company's share price has lost more than half its value in the last year and its market capitalization was just under $760 million as of Tuesday's close.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6725JJ20100804

[musette_sf]

1. I had to look up Leonard Riggio

since he chronologically couldn't be the actual founder of B&N.

I was a frequent denizen of the original B&N location on 5th Avenue back in the 60s, before Riggio bought it out. A grand thing it was then.

[roguevalley]

2. I love B and N. I hope it makes it out in some good shape in the end.

[eilen]

3. I am disappointed they took a large portion of the

store and stocked it with games and toys.

[nyy1998]

4. Not in the two B&N stores by me

It's 90% books, 10% kids/CDs/movies stuff.

And their website is pretty price competitive with Amazon these days.

I really hope they turn out ok from this deal.

[roguevalley]

6. mine is books, books, books.

[struggle4progress]

7. I used to frequent the one in Cambridge thirty some years ago

If I had a spare afternoon, I'd take the train into town just to wander that cavern. They had tons of publishers' remainders at give-away prices: it was a fantastic place to pick up useful technical books

Only ever set foot in that NY store once but loved it, too

[alp227]

5. I don't want to see right-wing books displayed so prominently at B&N politics section

One afternoon while waiting for the bus I visited the local B&N at the mall where the bus station was. Books by Newt Gingrich and Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter were displayed covers facing out while non-right-wing books were generally shelved spine facing out. I hope for some change under the new management, haha.