With its stock trading persistently low, Barnes & Noble’s board of directors has effectively given in to the pressure brought by activist shareholder Ron Burkle and larger market forces following their recent earnings disappointment in announcing that it “intends to evaluate strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of the company, in order to increase stockholder value.” The board concluded that the company’s shares–battered in the past month in particular–“are now significantly undervalued.” The plain-English translation is that the company has agreed to put itself in play conceptually, and on Wall Street the line between concept and reality here is infinitesimally […]