Posted on 06/07/2019 3:09:47 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Just about eight months after Barnes & Noble revealed it was exploring a possible sale, the embattled bookseller has settled on a buyer.
The mega-chain, which boasts 627 locations across the U.S., announced Friday that the Elliott Management Corp. has agreed to buy Barnes & Noble for about $683 million — a price tag that includes the bookseller's debt, which Elliott will take on as part of the deal.
The move marks Elliott's second major splash in the world of books in the span of a year. Last June the New York-based hedge fund acquired Waterstones, which, with more than 280 bookshops, is the largest retail bookseller in the U.K.
Now, Elliott is set to own the largest bookseller in the U.S., too.
"We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Elliott, the owner of Waterstones, a bookseller I have admired over the years," Leonard Riggio, the founder of Barnes & Noble's modern iteration and still its chairman, said in a statement released Friday. "In view of the success they have had in the bookselling marketplace, I believe they are uniquely suited to improve and grow our company for many years ahead."
Elliott was careful to note that "each bookseller will operate independently" — but added that "they will share a common CEO and benefit from the sharing of best practice between the companies." That CEO is James Daunt, the British-born chief of Waterstones, who plans to head up both companies from New York City.
"Physical bookstores the world over face fearsome challenges from online and digital," Daunt said Friday. "We meet these with investment and with all the more confidence for being able to draw on the unrivaled bookselling skills of these two great companies."
Once the towering Goliath of the bookselling world, these days Barnes & Noble is getting dwarfed by primarily online competitors — particularly Amazon, which reportedly sells nearly 50 percent of all new books. The bricks-and-mortar giant, on the other hand, has seen its revenue slide each year for the past several years.
Daunt has been credited with helping turn the fortunes of Waterstones, which less than a decade ago was "losing horrendous amounts of money," in the words of its CEO. Lately, the British bookseller has been reporting leaps in profits. The financial backing of Elliott, which says it currently manages approximately $34 billion in assets, shouldn't hurt Barnes & Noble either.
The U.S. bookseller expects the deal to close by the end of September.
1) Private Company purchases struggling company. Money is made by Directors and above of both companies along with everyone who gets a piece of the transaction fees.
2) Struggling company struggles even more under large debt burden and ultimately fails.
3) Directors and Above in the failing company get golden parachutes. Parasites get rich off fees from putting company into bankruptcy.
4) Company is sold off in parts. The only losers are the pension funds who are holding the debt. The other winner is the guy at the pension fund who was bribed to present the debt as a good investment to the pension fund.
It looks like B&N is bound for the dustbin of history while many individuals who will add no value to anything will walk away rich and smug.
If I had that much money I certainly would NOT invest in a bookstore chain...madness!
> removing B&N would allow small locally-owned bookstores to once again exist and thrive <
There were quite a few locally-owned bookstores in my neck of the woods before B&N came along. And they were - without exception - weird leftist book stores. I couldn’t get a commentary on the Gospels in any of them. But I could get ten different books written by Chairman Mao.
Yes, my local B&N carries books by the great murderer Mao. But it also carries Christian commentaries.
Just my two cents. If you live in a rural area, I’m betting your locally-owned bookstores weren’t quite as crazy.
Last time I went to Barnes and Noble they only had a couple aisles of books. They’re mainly just a Starbuck’s that sells novelty items.
Yes, the independent ones were largely Marxist oriented, in fact the most popular one was called “Revolution Books” and had a mural of Che Guevara on the front.
We used to have an excellent combination Christian bookstore and coffee shop in our neighborhood which specialized largely in Reformed Christian books. But they eventually went out of business.
“If I had that much money I certainly would NOT invest in a bookstore chain...madness!”
agreed ... buying a failing newspaper chain would be a much better way to go ... (do i really need the sarc tag?)
I had a Kindle book published years ago, so I stay informed.
Amazon does the following:
Shadow bans certain sub-genres, books, and/or authors: If you do not do an exact word search, it will not appear.
Removes book reviews by conservatives, individual or wholesale. (Joseph Farah had hundreds of his reviews removed.)
Ban certain conservative or libertarian authors.
I became aware of the shadow ban five (5) years ago - not of mine, but of other books/authors. I tested it: Certain books appeared not to be offered for sale, but if I did a sufficiently complete and exact search, it suddenly appeared along with the non-banned titles.
You may not have to deal with a disrespectful clerk in person, but you are being impersonally disrespected and disenfranchised nonetheless.
It is only getting much worse.
Yes, and what many do not understand is:
Digital purchase is not ownership - of literature or music.
If you do not have a hard copy, then you do not own it.
“Physical bookstores the world over face fearsome challenges from online and digital.”
False. Physical bookstores face fearsome challenges from internal management issues that reject traditional families, Western churches and quality printing.
My last visit to Barnes and Noble in Emeryville was many years ago when I saw a section glorifying people afflicted with temporary, same sex attraction. I walked out with disgust. Burn it down.
There was a B&N near me that I patronized. It was huge, had an excellent selection, browsing areas, and a good music room. It was always busy, and was something of a social hangout.
It was the last brick book store that I supported with my cash. If they did not have it in stock, they ordered it.
I was genuinely shocked when I saw their Closing Soon sign. It closed on December 31st years ago.
What happened on January 1st? Obamacare took effect.
I can have nearly any book I want delivered in a day or two by Amazon, including out-of-print and used volumes. I can also choose from thousands of eBooks, downloaded instantly to my devices. I haven’t been in a B&N for a couple years, but the last time I went, it was depressing—a terrible selection and more expensive by far than online.
Barbarian age? More like a Golden Age for readers.
I DO remember Border’s Books being a Big Deal in Madison, WI, but they’ve been gone for 10 years or so by now.
I’m wondering if the ‘independent’ bookstore can fill the gap? Specialty Bookstores around here seem to do OK.
Half-Price Books, Porn, LGBTXYZ-BS, New Age Crystal & Incense Mumbo-Jumbo, Femi-Nazi Bookstores, etc. still seem to be holding their own.
BUT - I mean, you can’t really take your KIDS there for Story Hour, LOL!
If B&N, like Borders, hadn’t turned bookstores into amusement parks, we’d still have decent bookstores.
It’s all about sales per square foot. Those cavernous entertainment destination stores never made any sense.
I don’t disagree.
When I’m in a B&N, I search out Mysteries, Cookbooks, and books with Crochet patterns.
Not much else matters to me - though the ‘matrix’ would be different for everyone else, of course.
But, Heinlein says that ‘specialization is for insects,’ LOL!
google does it too.
Mark Steyn does not appear near the top of any listing unless you type in both names.
>> If you do not do an exact word search, it will not appear.
Had that happen this weekend. No luck with the Amazon search, went back to my friend’s copy. Entered the title exactly and included the author’s name.
It popped up for sale. Tacky!
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