In the least surprising news of the month, the Barnes & Noble board hasunanimously agreed with itself and told investor Ron Burkle they willnot abandon the poison pill that was created specifically to blockBurkle from accumulating too much of the company’s stock. They also write: “The Board also would like to correct a misstatementcontained in your letter regarding the total stock holdings of theRiggio family and other Company insiders. Please be advised that,excluding options that are not votable, Barnes & Noble’s directors,management and other executive officers currently hold approximately 31%of the Company’s outstanding stock.” The real question is whether Burkle […]
Bookstores
Burien Books for Sale
This Seattle bookstore is on the market, following the recent death of owner Virginia Pearce, who ran the store for over 50 years. Her nephew Joe Wisen says, “We are actively trying to sell it and if it doesn’t sell quickly we will have to close it down.” Highline Times
Aletheia Buys Another 2 Million Barnes & Noble Shares
In concert with their friend Ron Burkle’s assault on Barnes & Noble’s board, Aletheia Research disclosed to the SEC their continued purchases of BN stock. Between January 21 and January 29 alone, they added more than 2 million shares, bringing their stake in the company up to 17.44 percent. At today’s share price, which is rising, they are still about $8 million in the red on their investment-to-date of $210 million.
Discussing Ideas to Help Stores Survive
Both formally and informally, booksellers at the ABA’s Winter Institute were talking about, and listening to, ideas for how stores can preserve their essential role during the digital transition and drive revenue from more than sales of printed books. On Wednesday Dan Clancy from Google tried to open the door to brainstorming how Google can help retailers sell ebooks from physical stores. The starting principle is that “when you buy a digital book from a physical store, it needs to be simple.” A sample notion was to ask, what if it’s as simple as taking a digital picture of the […]
Publishing Execs Talk to Booksellers About the Agency Model and More
It’s a safe bet that when David Young of Hachette, Madeline McIntosh of Random House and Drake McFeely of Norton first agreed to discuss the impact of digitization at the ABA’s Winter Institute in San Jose they had no idea of the hot-button issues the timing would bring. For the most part the questions skirted the issues rather than plunging in, but it was the first chance to hear publicly from Random House, which so far has spoken more by not making a deal with Apple than anything else. Young made it clear that at Hachette they “had been considering […]
Pershing Square's Ackman on Borders: "We Don't See It As a Likely Bankruptcy."
As part of a segment on CNBC’s Fast Money Tuesday evening, Pershing Square CEO and founder Willam Ackman – Borders’ majority stakeholder and holder of a $42.5 million loan that will come due on April 1 – prognosticated on the retailer’s chances of survival: “I think [bankruptcy] is a low-probability event. The company’s made a lot of progress in last 12 months from operational and a financial point of view” and “really stabilized itself financially.” He later added: “The stock trades as if it’s going to go bankrupt at $1 a share…[but] we’re going to see more when company reports […]