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Barnes & Noble mulls e-book options
Photo
In this photo provided by Barnes & Noble, a demonstrator holds the new Nook Tablet in New York. Barnes & Noble said Thursday it is reviewing its options for its growing Nook e-book reader business and might spin it off from its core bookstore business.
Associated Press
NEW YORK
Barnes & Noble is considering options for its quickly growing but expensive Nook e-book reader business, its latest attempt to regain profitability as the publishing industry adapts to the rising popularity of digital books and magazines.
Investors fled as the company also forecast a much bigger loss for the year than originally expected. The stock lost nearly a fifth of its value.
Barnes & Noble has been investing heavily in electronic books and its Nook e-book readers as it faces tough competition from online retailers and discount stores. That business is growing as consumers increasingly shift to reading e-books. But it has led to losses for the New York-based bookseller.
Barnes & Noble is facing tough competition from Amazon.com, which offered its Kindle Fire for $199 and its Kindle e-reader for $79 over the holidays. Barnes & Noble sold its Nook Tablet for $249 and its black-and-white Simple Touch e-reader for $99. Demand for the Simple Touch reader lagged expectations during the holidays, Barnes & Noble said.
Still, combined sales of Nook products were brisk, up 70 percent compared with a year ago during the nine-week period ended Dec. 31. Digital-content sales more than doubled. The company expects those sales to total $450 million in fiscal 2012.