Barnes & Noble is again for sale

Barnes & Noble (bks) is once again studying the so-called strategic solutions for its business, including the eventual sale of the endangered bookstore chain.

Barnes & Noble said on Wednesday that it plans to sell after attracting the interest of many parties, including the company's executive chairman and major shareholder, Leonard Riggio, who has transformed what was once a single store in Manhattan into one. the largest chain of American bookstores.

The company, which had to cope with a long series of quarterly sales declines, has considered selling several times over the years, including a previous buyout of Riggio. Even though Barnes & Noble shares have increased by 20% WHAT ??? after publication of the review process, equities remain depressed by historical standards.

The market value of the company is approximately $ 400 million, a decrease of 80% from the 2006 peak (approximately $ 2 billion).

The retailer struggled to compete with Amazon.com, which dominates the online sales of physical and digital books. In the last quarter, Barnes & Noble's same-store sales were down 6.1%, driven by strong consumption and a rebound in physical book sales. Despite many facade changes, the channel's website has failed to win the favor of online book buyers; online sales fell 14% in the last quarter.

In addition to the pressure on the company, Barnes & Noble has had five CEOs over the past six years. His latest, Demos Parneros, was brutally fired in July after a little over a year of work for breaking business rules. (He has since sued the company for unjustified dismissal.)

Barnes & Noble's board of directors has intermittently been considering selling for years. In 2010, a year after a deadly battle with activist investor Ron Burkle, Barnes & Noble announced a sales process and Riggio had then stated that he was considering forming a group to make the acquisition .

A year later, John Malone's Liberty Media offered $ 1.02 billion, but ended up investing $ 204 million. And in 2013, Riggio again stated that he was interested in buying the Barnes & Noble bookstores (excluding the now decommissioned bookstore), but then abandoned those plans.

More recently, activist investors have lobbied the company for it to sell. Barnes & Noble also announced on Wednesday that it has adopted a short-term shareholder rights plan after finding "quick material accumulations" of its shares by parties it could not identify. This maneuver prevents anyone in the next year from taking a stake of more than 20% in the business without the approval of the board of directors.