Latest in Barnes & Noble

Book-buyers apparently want a redacted Mueller Report all their own: Sales of dead-tree versions and ebooks have sent several editions of the investigation findings to the tops of pre-order bestseller lists. Topping the charts on Amazon this afternoon was The Mueller Report: The Final Report of the Special Counsel…

Updated with company statement: Barnes & Noble shares leaped about 12% this morning after hedge fund Sandell Asset Management Corp urged the book retailer to sell itself following “strategic missteps and many troubling related-party transactions.” B&N shares lost nearly 40% of their value over the last 12 months as…

Barnes & Noble just unceremoniously ousted Ronald Boire as CEO, saying that the board has deemed him “not a good fit for the organization and that it was in the best interests of all parties for him to leave the Company.” Executive Chairman Leonard Riggio will put off his planned retirement next month and, with other…

It’s not time to close the book on Barnes & Noble just yet. But its story is taking a turn for the worse: Investors this morning responded to a surprisingly weak earnings report for the quarter that ended in October by driving the stock down about 22% to a 52-week low. The challenges re-launching BN.com to also handle…

Barnes & Noble continues to tell a sad story this morning. Shares plummeted 13% in opening trading after it said that Microsoft bailed out of a 2012 partnership designed to bolster the book chain’s Nook e-reading line — and unveiled disappointing earnings for the quarter that ended on November 1. The termination of…

The stock is up 7.3% in pre-market trading after the book retailer said that it plans to split Nook Media into a separate, publicly traded company. The businesses “will have the best chance of optimizing shareholder value if they are capitalized and operated separately,” Barnes & Noble CEO Michael Huesby says. The…

The book retailer’s shares are up 3.4% in early trading after it announced a plan to offer its software in Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook tablets, enabling Barnes & Noble to lessen its exposure to its Nook tablets that have struggled to keep up with rivals including Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle.  A 7-inch version of…

The book retailer’s down 9.4% to $16.85 this morning after Chairman Leonard Riggio disclosed in an SEC filing that he unloaded 3.7M shares yesterday for an average of $17.30 apiece in a privately negotiated block trade. He says that he made the $64M deal “for long-term financial and estate planning purposes.” He still…

The stock is down about 12% in early trading after Barnes & Noble disclosed in an SEC filing that John Malone’s media company has agreements to sell 90% of its investment to “qualified institutional buyers.” Three years ago Malone offered about $1B to buy the book retailer. When talks stalled, he agreed to pay $200M fo…

The stock is up 7.5% to about $18 after G Asset Management disclosed that it has offered to pay $22 a share for 51% of the retail book chain — or $5 a share for 51% of the Nook tablet and e-reader business. The investment firm says that its offers are contingent on its ability to obtain financing, due diligence and…

How badly do Barnes & Noble investors want the retailer to ditch its struggling Nook tablet and e-reader business? The company’s shares shot up 7.6% today, with heavy volume, after Business Insider reported that it laid off the unit’s hardware engineers. The company says that it didn’t fire the entire staff, but…

The company’s position appears to be, it could have been worse. Barnes & Noble’s bookstores and online service generated revenues of $1.1B in the nine weeks ending December 28, it says today. That’s down 6.6% vs the period last year. But most of the decline is due to store closures. At stores open at least a year…