Barnes & Noble's Ignoble Nook Losses

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Although the Nook e-reader made a big splash when it debuted in 2009, Barnes & Noble, the nation's biggest bookstore chain, suffered a 25.9 percent drop in Nook revenues, including readers and e-book sales, for the fiscal third quarter ending January 26, Reuters reported.

Nook losses increased twofold, exceeding $190 million, as the company slashed prices on e-readers and tablets in the face of dismal sales during the holiday season, according to Reuters. B & N broke off its college bookstore business and Nook division last year under the Nook Media umbrella. The move attracted muscular investors such as Microsoft Corp. and Pearson LLC, though B & N retained a 78 percent ownership interest in Nook Media.

Although the book club enthusiast staff of  "TUOL" continues to suffer paper cuts turning the pages of old-fangled books, the cutting-edge blog has studiously followed the progress and current decline of Nook (see "TUOL" posts 4/25/11, 2/9/10).

Will Barnes & Noble Say: 'Give Me Liberty (Media) & $1 Billion?

Image via WikipediaBillionaire John Malone's Liberty Media, whose holdings include the Atlanta Braves baseball team and interests in Sirius XM Radio, Inc. and the Starz Group media company, has offered $1 billion to acquire the Barnes & Noble bookstore chain, according to Bloomberg News and The Wall St. Journal.

A board committee of  B&N, which controls 28 percent of the e-book market with its Nook e-reader (see "TUOL" posts 4/25/11, 2/9/10), will review the proposal, which would require shareholder and regulatory acceptance. Credit Suisse gave its thumbs-up to the offering, saying that B&N would strongly compete with digital competitors Amazon (which makes the Kindle e-reader) and Apple with the financial backing of Liberty Media.

Liberty Media's $17 a share offer to B&N represents a 20 percent premium to shareholders based on the bookstore chain's closing stock price yesterday. The Englewood, Colo.-based Liberty would control 70 percent of B&N and current B&N chair Leonard Riggio would have a 30 percent equity stake in the enterprise under Liberty's proposed acquistion, according to Bloomberg News.

Barnes & Noble Adds a 'Hook' to the Nook

Image by orb9220 via FlickrThe E-reader wars continue unabated, with Barnes & Noble set to expand its Nook e-reader to accommodate email and an applications store, according to an Associated Press story.

Amazon, Inc.'s Kindle has made more of a splash in the market, but Nook does offer a color touchscreen, compared to the Kindle's non-touch-sensitive black and white screen.  (See "TUOL" post 2/10/10.) Among the 125 applications introduced for the Nook today are the game, "Angry Birds," and  "Epicurious" recipes.

Flash content will further jazz up Nook's Web browser. Nook runs Google, Inc.'s Android software, but not standard Android apps.

Digital Content Removal Kindles Class-Action Suit Against Amazon

Image by Geek Tonic via Flickr

When Amazon remotely deleted bootlegged digital versions of George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 from its e-reader Kindle, it may have thought it was just doing the right thing. But now that Amazon finds itself a defendant in a class-action suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, it probably will, in Orwellian terms, "doublethink" its decision.

In the case of Justin Gawronski and A. Bruguier, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated v. Amazon. com, Inc. and Amazon Digital Services, Inc., the plaintiffs sued Amazon for trespass to chattels, conversion, breach of contract, violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act, and violation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. sec. 1030) over the remote removal of 1984 from Kindle. The 18-page complaint was filed July 30.

Buyers of the Kindle electronic book reader agree to Amazon's terms of service, which enables the Delaware corp. to modify, suspend or discontinue the service without liability to consumers. From Amazon's perspective, consumers are not buying a book, which is tangible property, but rather, a service that Amazon controls. Low-tech types may gloat that were they in good faith to buy a paperback of 1984 to accompany their Cliff Notes version at Borders that turned out to be an unauthorized version of the futuristic novel, the bookstore would be hard-pressed to snatch the book back from them without refunding their money.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out for Amazon. A bit of advice to Amazon: if the court grants class status to the Complaint and Winston Smith becomes a named plaintiff, you might want to settle, because a federal courtroom is no Ministry of Love.