Barnes and Noble is thinking of spinning off the Nook.
I'm not sure I understand all the ramifications of this -- but my general sense is that this is an effort to wring value out of the stock. I figure they'll dump all the debts into the Brick and Mortar operation, and take the high-flying Nook division away to make all the money.
In other words, I think they are giving up on physical books.
They'd never say that, of course.
One commentator was mentioning that it defied the selling option of using the bricks and mortars for publicizing the Nook. Maybe I don't understand the "spinning off" part, but why? Why wouldn't they just push even harder? Devote even more space, time, energy, employees to push the Nook? Let the books crash and burn, what do they care? It's all doomed anyway....
What's been happening is that the Barnes and Noble stock hasn't been going anywhere, despite the 'success' of the Nook. So it seems they've decided to extract the value by removing the one part of the operation that has a future.
Whether that's smart or dumb, I do think it spells the end of the Barnes and Noble bookstores. Without the Nook, they are just another version of Borders, right?
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2 comments:
Dead and done.
"I figure they'll dump all the debts into the Brick and Mortar operation, and take the high-flying Nook division away to make all the money."
That's what it looks like. I think it's short-sighted -- especially now that Borders, their last remaining competitor in the chain bookstore game, is out of the picture -- but today's American corporate executives are not known for being far-sighted; all they care about is the next quarter's bottom line and the value of their stock options.
If I was running B&N I would look at keeping the bricks-and-mortar operation, but sharply downsizing it by going to smaller stores with fewer employees. I also would look at concentrating on smaller cities and suburbs where there are relatively few independent competitors.
But what the hell do I know.
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