Barnes & Noble founder abandons plan to buy stores




Leonard Riggio, the founder and largest shareholder of Barnes & Noble, has suspended his plan to buy the bookstore chain’s stores,

Reuters reported.

Sales at the stores declined by 10% for the latest quarter, the report noted.

A deal with Riggio would have involved splitting off the stores from the company’s Nook e-reader and college bookstore business.

A

Wall Street Journal

article noted

that the company said its board and management had decided not to separate the businesses after considering the idea for 18 months.

In July, B&N CEO William Lynch, who had led the company’s push to compete with Apple and Amazon in selling e-readers, resigned. “Mr. Lynch’s departure appears to have calmed tensions that had prompted Mr. Riggio, who built Barnes & Noble into America’s biggest bookstore chain, to propose buying back the still-profitable retail stores,” the

Journal

article said. “And it left Mr. Riggio clearly in control.”

The

Journal

article said, “Mr. Riggio’s plans aren’t clear.” (Sources: Reuters, Aug. 20, 2013;

Wall Street Journal,

Aug. 21, 2013.)

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