Barnes & Noble May Separate Nook Business as Losses Mount

[FPGFHFMA]

Barnes & Noble Warns of Loss, Considers Separation of Nook - WSJ.com

 

[dansamy]

I think they'd sell a metric ton more nook tablets if they'd unlock the bootloader and release the firmware, digital signatures, etc for community ROMing. They had seemed to be embracing the AOSP philosophy that encourages community development with the color. They abandoned that with the tablet.

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[J515OP]

Interesting and a completely different take on this article that says the spin off is due to the success of the Nook Color and Nook Tablet Nook sets holiday sales records, Barnes & Noble considering spinoff | The Verge. It is the Nook
Simple Touch that missed and with the rise of tablets is it any surprise a simple e-reader lost sales?

Barnes & Noble says the Nook family of e-readers and tablets set holiday sales records, with overall sales up 70 percent from last year. The company isn't dishing out hard numbers, but says the Nook Tablet "exceeded expectations" while sales of the Nook Simple Touch "lagged expectations" — a dynamic B&N says indicates "strong consumer preference for color devices." Content sales were up 11 percent as well, and B&N expects Nook content to be a $750m business by the end of 2012.


In fact, Barnes & Noble thinks Nook has so much potential it's considering spinning the whole thing off, with CEO William Lynch saying it's time to "unlock" the value of the Nook business. Discussions have begun with publishers, retailers, and tech companies about the future of Nook, with a particular focus on international expansion — an important consideration as Amazon expands the Kindle brand overseas. The discussions are preliminary, and the split isn't guaranteed: there's no set timetable for a decision, and B&N says it won't talk about anything "unless and until a decision is made." We'll see what happens — and if the Nook is indeed so successful that Barnes & Noble has to set it free.

Overall it appears that B&N has a winning strategy in the tablet/reader business but has larger core business issues.

 

[Spook_Man]

The way I see this is their ebook market is flying. Their "mortar and brick" stores (as I've heard elsewhere) is dying. Why not seperate the two so when the book stores close they won't loose as much, especially in the eyes of the stockholders.

Its a big win for them. Then they'll have a business model like Amazon and deal solely online and digitally.

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[dansamy]

"a dynamic B&N says indicates preference for color devices"
^ That just proves they're idiots. It's not the color screen. It's the multimedia, guys. People want their devices to do more than just read a book.

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