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Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
The new Nook Tablet, unveiled in November 2011.
By msnbc.com news services
Bookstore owner Barnes & Noble said Thursday it is considering splitting off its Nook electronic reader business and also cut its full-year earnings forecast, citing a shortfall in sales of its basic touchscreen reader.
Shares of Barnes & Noble fell sharply on the news. Barnes & Noble, which has been battling Amazon.com's Kindle platform in the growing e-reader market, also cited higher advertising costs and costs for international expansion in cutting its earnings forecast.
By spinning off its digital business, Barnes & Noble appears to be looking to aggressively develop its position in the digital media market. But the question for investors is whether any value remains in the bricks-and-mortar portion of the company.
The company did say that sales of Nook readers rose 70 percent during the nine weeks ended December 31, compared with a year earlier and that sales of digital content, including books, apps and newspapers and magazines, rose 113 percent on a comparable basis.
"We see substantial value in what we've built with our Nook business in only two years, and we believe it's the right time to investigate our options to unlock that value," William Lynch, chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble, said in a statement.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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I guess they see the "writing on the wall" for the bricks and mortar side and want the electronics side to live on after they file bankruptcy.
Go in any Barnes & Noble and see how many people are walking around inside and how many are standing at the cash register. It's not a matter of if, but when.
I frequent a few different Barnes and Nobles and they are always doing nice business. Their problem is that are over saturated with stores that are too big and in areas with high rent with a diminishing customer base. They need to change the way they present their stores by having a central bookshop (the size of a conventional store now) and then surround it with smaller satellite book sellers that are no more than half the size of the main store. And in certain areas have theme specific book sellers like a Barnes and Noble Kids store in areas with a large population of families or an expanded religion section in an area with a lot of churches.
What they are doing now is basically saying we have this new toy and we are going to focus on that but in so doing they are missing the real opportunities that printed books still provide.
The Clarendon, VA one is always packed with people...the issue is that there are a lot of people in there just browsing and reading at the tables and not buying.
I put the Nook app on my iPod only to find out I need to join a club to use it $29.00 a month plus the price of the books not worth it. I won't buy from Nook so I use the other apps B&N needs to do something about that, ill stiil buy books if I have to. Kindle is free so is the iPod store book prices just about as good.
Somehow you misunderstood how it works. It may require you to create a B&N account (free), but it does not require you to become a B&N member or pay any kind of subscription to use the Nook app. And I just did a search on mine for "free books" and came up with 1.8 million results. I downloaded one (H.G. Wells' The Time Machine) to make sure it actually worked and was free, and it does and is.
You can become a member of B&N and that costs money, but the Nook app is free to use. I had books on my Android and now have a Nook Tablet. I love the Nook system and wouldn't trade it for Amazon's.
I don't pay into any "club" with my nook. Maybe you should buy one and thrash your ipod.
You do not have to pay to be a member of any "club" to buy nook books. That's rubbish. I have the Nook app on my iPad and I buy books all the time. There is absolutely no membership fee.
I got a Barnes and Noble gift certificate for Christmas and was all excited to download a book. I downloaded the Nook app on my iPad and then started shopping. I found a book I wanted but in order to purchase it using the gift card I had to create profile with my own credit card listed on it. Sorry, I'm not going to give them my email address let alone my credit card number. I know B&N would never abuse the info I am just tired of having to give it up to do anything online these days.
I ended up going to the store and using the gift certificate but going forward I will buy books from Amazon (where they are usually less expensive) or iBooks since they already have my cc information.
Thanks CSX321, I will look into it again, i am not the must teck savvy person. I spent a couple of hours trying to find out how to create a B&N account (free) maybe I will contact them for help. I just got so frustrated with them sending me to the club hook up!
If you need to bubba, set up the nook account on the B&N website then link it to the iPod. There are instructions on their site I believe that helped me with linking my Android.
I hope B&N does keep Nook in good condition, I love the Nook Tablet I was able to get through holiday gift cards and cash. I have several free and cheap novels and quite a few apps I use on it daily. It's basically replaced my laptop at home.
You hit on one of the very real problems with making the e-readers profitable long term. People fill them up with free books and avoid buying books if possible. As they grow in popularity people will demand that books be provided more cheaply for the nook which then undercuts the authors profits and no book, even in digital form can exist without the author. This could force a lot of authors to stipulate that their books in digital format return a higher profit margin than the printed book to compensate for the loss and that in turn could create a parity between real books and digital books. Without books the Nook is just an underpowered cheap smart phone without the smartphones abilities.
I can agree with that Candlewycke. And I do get the free classics just because I can, I have still purchased every novel in the Legend of Drizzt series (starts at 6.77 and goes up for the newest set). And buy the comic series which range from a few dollars to over 20. (got "Old Man Logan' for 10 and some change)
Publishing houses have already started to band together to do this. They are collectively setting their ebook prices higher so there is no undercutting. The problem is people don't like to be gauged. I recently read Steve Jobs in an eReader and loved it so much that I went out and bought the physical book because I wanted a copy. I do this with a lot of books I enjoy. What I have found is now I read indie books or self published authors, in ebook format, who sell their books for a couple of dollars. I am supporting them, not the publishing houses who got on this train way too late, nor the big box book stores who put all the little independents out of business ten years ago.
Publishing houses don't realize that by having a lower price for the ebook they might actually sell more physical books (if the book is good that is).
Kindle Fire is better. Besides, it costs less to buy Kindle books on Amazon than BN's Nook books.
Not always. Have purchased books from Nook, kindle, and Apple, all after comparing prices and then buy from the less expensive. There is an app that compared prices. Look it up
maybe for you absolutelyright, it was better. I preferred the B&N system over Amazon Prime and Amazon Books. Also, Nook's use of physical buttons and better placement of the audio and charging ports helped sway me in that direction. (I checked reviews for at least 2 weeks before deciding to tell people I wanted money for the Nook over the Kindle)
Also the kindle is taking the Apple approach, everything is exclusive and only works with what they want. The nook runs pdf's and other file formats, the kindle is MUCH more strict and doesn't let you just run what you want. My nook will let me load pdfs, which is highly useful if I haven't decided if I want to buy a book yet or I want to read technical articles. I'd say the only reason the kindle is around (as it costs more and does less) is the extreme marketing campaign Amazon is doing, they push this thing like its a cure for cancer. They also claim their books are cheaper but I haven't found a major difference.
Also, Amazon does harass their authors in publishing digital content, and it even delayed the release of the Kindle digital version of my favorite book series, so that sold me. If I can get my books for the same price from B&N, on time, and on a better device I will never buy a kindle.
Kindle lets you use PDF too. Stop spreading more lies and disinformation, Hugin and Munin.
The ability to view a PDF is on the high end of both, but not on the lowends.
Have read all the reviews of Nook products as compared to Kindle products. All favor Nook over Kindle but question B&N's future. Splitting the company could increase sales more by removing the doubt about the company.
Agreed, so many reviewers seem to believe Fire will have a hot start(pun intended) and Nook will eventually have more stable better sales even with the fear in B&N's future
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The only reason to split off the Nook business is to protect it from the demise of Barnes & Nobles. I remember a few years ago the store me was going to have a second floor added. They had even posted the permits. Then the 2008 crash happened and they scuttled those plans. Now they pulling out books and adding filler stuff - games, legos, and whatever they can think of to fill the surplus space. The writing is on the wall - their stores are going to go the way of Borders. I also read that Leonard Riggio, their Chairman of the board and the person most responsible for building B&N into what they are today has not been supportive of the Nook business, believing it will destroy the rest of the business. That's your typical "let's fight change and not adapt" thinking that sunk Borders - and is sinking Kmart and Sears right now.
GVC, I agree with you about the future of the book business. They will go they way of Borders. I am an ex-Borders.
I was in a BN over the holidays,and I noticed all the"fill" in the store. You could almost imagine yourself being in something other than a bookstore, there was so much non book merchandise. That happened at Borders.
As some other poster pointed out---just because there are warm bodies in the store does not mean that they are lining up at the register to buy a book or piece of media. People still like to have a physical place to browse, linger, and meet. That is what they use the bookstore for. It does not bode well for the sale of real printed books.
Times are changing. In some ways it has gotten more difficult to procure what you want, when you want it. The technology keeps changing all the time. I find myself having to order online to get most anything that I would want, and wait for the delivery service to bring it to me. It is a return to the old mail order days.
One other thing about the publishing business is that they began to publish just about any dammed bit of fluff and nonsense. I saw it for years at Borders. There were so many books for children and young adults that were nothing more than junk food for the brain. They were the literary equivalent of eating Oreos and Ding Dongs. Just because it got printed between the pages of a book does not make it worthy of the ink and paper.
As a homeschooling parent, I am a regular shopper at Barnes and Noble and am thankful for their nice bookstores. We looked into the Nook tablet really considering it, but without internet access in the CAR, it would not be worth paying that much, and I don't want to invest hundreds of dollars just to get more mobile internet at this point. For homeschooling, I am investing in a lot of engineering kits from Lego Education and those robot kits rival the price points as all those expensive tablets and netbooks etc. I can just use the home computer and keep investing in my kid with other things besides an e-book, but we still use real workbooks from a real bookstore too so it's nice to have bricks and mortar (but we do compare prices on Amazon.com too and they actually get a lot more of our homeschool dollars for books).
R.L. -
You don't need internet access in your car to use a Nook. You download books at home (or in the store, or wherever you have access), and you read them wherever you like. Once downloaded, the book is on your Nook. I have a first generation Nook and I keep it in airplane mode unless I am downloading something.
It looks like B&N is looking at making a "Netflix" move. Last year almost all my book purchases were Nook books and all were bought while I was in their stores. It is much easier to browse the books on their shelves than on their web site. I can buy the Nook book off their website with my smartphone if I like it. The executives at B&N need to work the counters at their stores. Every local store I visit has a busy cafe and a near empty video section. If any part of the stores should be spun off, it is the video section and the cafe expanded to take its place.
On the barnes and nobles website there was a book I wanted that was 8.99. The website has a feature for "find in your local store". It said my local store had it for 15.99. I went to the store and asked them if they would honor their OWN PRICE from the website and they said no. Therefore I bought it from the website including paying full shipping and it still came out cheaper.
They are seriously trying to run themselves into the ground.
It's a well known fact that authors are scrambling right now to garner their share of the profits for their books. A large number have raised the prices to their e-books to make up the difference and cut out the middle man. All electronic book sites are experiencing this. As readers, we make the choices as to which books we choose to download for our reading devices and computers. Just like the grocery store, ALWAYS price check the item of interest to get the best pricing. I hate to see bookstores go under. Unfortunately it's happening and with it we will see libraries suffer the same fate as they'll no longer be able to purchase books for their shelves. For those on a limited income (Aren't we all?) try surfing for "free reads" or "free e-books" to supplement your libraries. Support your local or favorite bookstores and libraries.