Barnes & Noble Fires C.E.O. Without separation but does not explain why



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Barnes & Noble fired his general manager, Demos Parneros, for violating company policies, the company said Tuesday without specifying policies. Parneros has not been fired because of "any disagreement with the company regarding its financial, political or practical reports or any potential fraud related thereto," Barnes & Noble said in a statement.

The company added that it would receive no severance pay and that it had been removed from the board.
Mr. Parneros is the fourth general manager of the company to leave office in five years. He had been in his position for a little over a year, having held the position of chief operating officer in place of Ronald Boire. Mr. Boire had spent less than a year as CEO before being ousted in August 2016 after board members decided that he was "not a good candidate for the company ".

Michael P. Huseby resigns in July 2015 and William Lynch resigned in July 2013.

Until a permanent replacement for Mr. Parneros is found, his role will be temporarily occupied by a group of leaders including the CFO, the merchandising leader and the vice president. in charge of the stores. Mary Ellen Keating, a spokeswoman for the company, declined to comment further.

Leonard Riggio, who bought Barnes & Noble in 1971 and expanded it into a national chain, acted as director between Mr. Boire's mandate and that of Mr. Parneros. Mr. Riggio remains the executive chairman of the company

Barnes & Noble was beaten by digital competition, especially from Amazon.com, and struggled with the decline in pedestrian traffic, declining sales and the closed stores. Amazon is growing aggressively in physical retail, with more than a dozen bookstores across the country and an increasing number of ephemeral stores, as well as an expanded physical footprint through its acquisition of Whole Foods.

At the same time, there has been a surprising resurgence among independent booksellers, whose numbers have increased dramatically in recent years after decades of decline. Sales of printed books rebounded, a trend that should have benefited Barnes & Noble.

After becoming CEO last year, Mr. Parneros hired new executives and launched several new initiatives to increase the volume and sales of the stores. Barnes & Noble Book Club

In a recent call to discuss profits, Mr. Parneros said the store would experiment with new store prototypes this year, with smaller and more "flexible" designs for the stores. stores. However, the company's sales have continued to decline and its price has fallen by more than 30% since Mr. Parneros became CEO.

The latest earnings report of the company for the fourth quarter of 2018 more than 6% in the year until April. The vagueness of the Barnes & Noble announcement has left industry experts speculate on the reasons for Mr. Parneros's departure and consider the timing of the announcement, which came late in the day just before "It means that they want to bury it, because it's a week where no one is there," said Mike Shatzkin, a publisher and founder of Idea Logical Company. in the light, an inexorable and insoluble conflict surfaced and called for an immediate change that was not negotiable. "

A version of this article is printed on in Page B 3 of the New York Edition with the title: Barnes & Noble Fires CEO, saying the policies were violated . Order Reprints Today's Paper | Subscribe
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