Barnes & Noble Splits Off from Nook in March

Barnes & Noble Splits Off from Nook in March

It's the boot, for the Nook.

Investors cheered the decision, sending the bookseller’s shares up 5% to $21.65.

Despite spending years pouring money into Nook devices and their accompanying digital library, Barnes & Noble has struggled to keep pace with deeper-pocketed rivals like Apple with its iPad and Amazon.com with its Kindle.



The company recently teamed with Samsung on a co-branded tablet to unload some of the costs of producing its own hardware. It has also slashed staff at the Nook unit to cut spending.

Barnes & Noble Nook

The company’s retail business, while hit by sluggish sales, has at least been turning a profit.

Barnes & Noble said separation of the two companies will be done by March 2015. The company’s college division, which runs 700 bookstore locations at schools around the country, will remain part of Nook after the split.

The largest U.S. brick and mortar bookseller also reported its Nook unit continued to lose money in the fourth quarter and said it expected the losses to continue into this year. Nook’s sales in the May quarter fell 22%.

The company’s net loss for the quarter narrowed to $36.7 million, while its total revenue rose 3.5% to $1.32 billion.


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