Barnes & Noble laid off an unspecified number of employees at its distribution warehouse in Monroe, NJ earlier this week. In addition, the Social Security Administration is looking into possible discrepancies in employment information at the center, though a BN spokeswoman said “the reduction in workforce … has nothing to do with the Social Security inquiry,” and declined to say how many employees were being questioned in the matter. MyCentralJersey.com Sales for Books-A-Million’s first quarter dropped 11 percent to $104 million, with store comps falling 13.2 percent from last year (when the company reported a 3.6 percent drop from 2009.) […]
Archives for May 2011
ABA’s Teicher Calls For “New Business Practices” to Sustain Stores
At the ABA’s annual general meeting CEO Oren Teicher noted the already announced gain in membership – with 105 new members, it’s the biggest increase in some time – but didn’t mince words about how independents “are living through a period of unprecedented change and staggering challenges” and that running a bookstore “can no longer be business-as-usual.” The challenge facing indies in the wake of Apple selling almost 20 million iPads in the past year is that “each of those iPads is also a full-color, live demonstration of the tug-of-war between books and competing media for a consumer’s attention.” The […]
BN Presents “Simple, Pure” $139 Reader; Says Nook Color Is No. 2 Tablet
If I’m being honest, as I usually try to do, the working book trade press corp showed up at Barnes & Noble’s Union Square store this morning with a bit of resentment. Why was the company pulling us away from the Javits floor on the opening morning of BEA to introduce an already leaked eInk touchscreen device? Particularly when those nice Canadians from Kobo unveiled their $129 touchscreen reader modestly at Javits Center yesterday. Also odd at first, and then just plain annoying (and a little pathetic), was a claque of roughly sixty people wearing black t-shirts emblazoned with “nook,” apparently […]
So Ron Burkle Thinks Barnes & Noble Stock Will Rise
Investor Ron Burkle has been noticeably quiet since Barnes & Noble announced the interest received last week from Liberty Media in buying the company, but it turns out he was talking with his wallet. In the required SEC filing, Burkle disclosed that his Yucaipa companies purchased another 603,000 shares yesterday, paying $18.489 a share. Though Burkle is restricted by the company’s poison pill from acquiring more than 20 percent of shares, he had a small amount of room to buy. According to the filing, his 11,894,213 shares comprise 19.74 percent of shares outstanding. He could still buy another 150,000 shares or […]
Buzz Reviews: Blue Nights, by Joan Didion
Review by Rachel Syme When The Year of Magical Thinking appeared in 2005, it established Joan Didion as the high priestess of anointed grief counselors — her meticulous and minimalist memoir of losing her husband to heart failure hit a cultural and emotional chord that continues to reverberate. In Blue Nights, Didion’s new memoir, she turns to motherhood with a similar clinical detachment — again a shock, but in this case, one that feels much more uncomfortable. Didion’s gimlet eye is always welcome; the conclusions that she draws from it, maybe less so. Two months before Magical Thinking‘s publication, Didion’s 39-year-old adopted daughter, Quintana […]
Malone Explains to Shareholders Why Liberty Bid For BN
At a meeting with Liberty Media shareholders in Denver Monday to approve the planned spinoff of Liberty Capital and Starz, chairman John Malone explained why the company offered $17 a share for Barnes & Noble last week. He believes there’s a bright future for BN, and not just in terms of its digital growth: “I’ve been a Barnes & Noble customer myself for many, many years. The stores will shift around, but there will be a physical presence for a long, long time to come, and it will be a profitable presence.” Malone expects negotiations could take months rather than […]